Anthropophagist
by PanicButton
Summary: ReidCentric. He is back at work, but when the team are called out on a case he is left behind. Then they request help from Floyd. Things then start to go wrong for Spence. swears.
1. Chapter 1

Anthropophagist

_Floyd Flanders Franks once thought: -__ I can see I need to take this to the next step. I have never experienced such a resistance as this. This is exciting!_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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**A/N: sort of maybe a continuation some time later after recovery, cos this is Criminal Minds and not ER so don't much wanna do hospital drama.

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There was a slightly uneasy peace when the members of the BAU got back to work.

Although finally Reid had been given the all clear to return to work, he wouldn't be a field agent. At least not until further surgery had been done on his knee. Until that time he was still in a small brace and walking with a limp.

Rossi had joined as a new member and at last they seemed to be meshing back together.

Today was his first day back and he stood in the bathroom looking at his pale face in the mirror watching it slowly fade in the steam.

"What's wrong? I thought you were looking forward to today." He turned and looked at the smiling face behind him.

"I am. I think I am – just you know. I'm a bit nervous I suppose."

"Are you sure you don't want a lift in?" Fingers pushing his hair behind his ears for him.

"You lost your drivers permit remember? Please try to remember." A frown.

Smirk. "How can I forget with you on my back about it all the time?" Looking down at Spencer's thin bare arms. One of them had a nasty scar down the inside from elbow to wrist. "You should keep that covered." Reid ran his finger along the purplish coloured dent in his arm.

"I'm not ashamed of it."

"No? Your therapist tell you that did she?" A finger joined Reid's in its journey down the scar.

A nod "But I agree with her. It's only a mark on my skin. Not a scar on my mind."

"Bullshit." He turned and walked away with a tight expression. "I'm going back to bed then. Have a good day at the office my dear." He left the bathroom slamming the door behind him.

Spencer frowned at the door then turned back to the mirror and drew a smiley face in the steam.

"And stop drawing on the mirror you big kid!" A muffled shout from the direction of the kitchen.

………………….

As the elevator pinged on the floor he needed his stomach tied in a knot of worry and he wanted to just be sucked back down to the basement. Two steps took him out of the elevator and into visual range of the team. He stood holding his messenger bag tightly in front of him. A barrier against everything.

"Hey." From next to him – Aaron. "Coffee? We should start off as we mean to go on, don't you think?"

Spencer smiled at his boss and nodded. "Wonderful way to start back. Thank you."

Hotch took the lead and Reid followed. He could feel eyes boring into his back and looking at his leg as he limped slowly behind Hotch. He could feel tears of frustration prickling behind his eyes. They had either been told to keep back from him, or they didn't want to talk to him. Either way it felt bad. He stood next to Aaron at the counter and fiddled with the coffee machine until it hissed at him and made him jump. A hand rested on his shoulder.

"It's going to be OK. New dynamics in the team. Rossi is good. You will like him. It's all a change so you don't need to worry."

Chewing on his bottom lip "Do I look worried?"

"Petrified. No need to be. Grab the coffee and come to my office. You need to sign papers again and read through contracts etcetera."

Spencer looked down at the coffee mug now sitting in front of him and picked up the sugar container and poured it into his mug. A hand now on his hand.

"You are shaking. It's only us Spencer. We are your family. You don't need to worry about what people are thinking because they are all thinking how great it is to have you back at work." A pause as Spencer stirred his sugar. "Is Floyd OK with this?"

Reid looked up and met Hotch's eyes for the first time. "Floyd is fine with this. He is sticking to the rules. He is taking his meds and he is seeing the therapist each day. She comes to the house. I think he was glad to see the back of me this morning."

He put is spoon in the sink and tucked his hair behind his ears.

The walk to Aaron's office felt like he was running the gauntlet only in some kind of Halloween reverse. No body looked at him. No body said good morning, yet as he past he could hear whisperings and rustlings. If he could have made a black hole appear under him right there and then he would have. By the time he had reached Aaron's office and his leg was throbbing and his eyes watering in pain he just felt like giving up and going home.

Hotch closed and locked the office door and asked Reid to sit. Once he was sitting and the coffee had been blown on and sipped he asked Spencer what was wrong.

"What is it with them? Not even Morgan has said 'goodmorning' I cant do this Aaron. This is a mistake."

"I told them to leave you be this morning. I know they all – well some – have a lot of questions and I didn't think you would want that the minute you stepped out of the elevator. To be totally honest I am amazed that Morgan took any notice of me. He has been worried about you Spencer. We all have. We so nearly lost you again. You are going to be an invaluable resource to us Reid. You can do your job just as well here as out in the field. As I said the dynamics have changed."

"You don't need a walking encyclopdia." Fiddle, fiddle.

"I didn't say that. That's not what I meant. That's not what you were. For now read this over and sign where you need." He looked up into Spencer's eyes. "Spencer, don't look so worried. You will be doing the same job – virtually the same job, but you will have the Quantico resources to leech from. A better arrangement."

"I was a field agent Hotch. This feels like a demotion."

"Garcia works from here."

"She has her own office."

Raised eyebrow. "She has a bunker full of computers."

"I am requesting a bunker full of maps and felt tip pens then." A grin.

…………………….

Eleven in the morning and Floyd was pacing the loft apartment he shared with Reid. He hated taking these damned meds. They made his head feel wrong. They stopped him from thinking straight but he promised. He had promised Spence he would take them. So why are they still in his hand two hours late? Damn you Spence, damn you Aaron. He opened his palm and looked at the mixture of pills getting sweaty. Some to calm him down, some to stop the twitching which the first ones caused, some to stop him seeing things, some to stop him thinking things he shouldn't. So many pills, it wasn't him anymore. He was finding living with Spencer irritating in the extreme. Annoying habits like reading in bed and having to wash his mug up as soon as he had drained it. Putting clean clothes out for them both to wear in the morning. Insisting he showered. That was probably the most annoying. The washing – constant nagging about his hair and the – yes the insistence that he take off his day clothes when he goes to bed.

Why?! Explain why Spence. What is the point? You only have to get up in a few hours and put them back on again. Explain the reasoning.

He looked down at the pill cocktail in his fist and walked to the kitchen area.

"I will take them. Not for you Spence and not for you Aaron, but because you will know if I don't and I wont end up in some hole because I have killed my therapist." He looked up at the kitchen clock. "Shit, the therapist." He poured some cold water from the fridge dispenser and chugged back the pills. The effect was almost immediate. He slid down the kitchen wall and sat on the floor hugging his legs and resting his head on his knees. He was still sitting there when the buzzer went on the intercom.

He dragged himself to his feet and walked to the big service elevator and punched the intercom button. "What?"

"Its Cindy, can I come up please?"

"No – fuck off and leave me alone. I am done talking to you."

"Please Floyd. You sound a bit distressed. Maybe I can help."

"Well that's doubtful – but if you insist."

He smacked the elevator button and sent it down to her. "Hope it crushes you." He muttered as he walked off to put the kettle on.

……………………

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**A/N: - carry on? Stop here? Any opinions? Please R&R

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	2. Chapter 2 Work

Work

_I don't believe in fate or destiny. I believe in various degrees of hatred, paranoia, and abandonment. However much of that gets heaped upon you doesn't matter – its only a mater of how much you can take and what it does to you: - Henry Rollins._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine. Floyd Flanders Franks is.

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Reid sat looking through the paperwork for a while rubbing his thigh with his hand. The frown lines getting deeper in his brow. Hotch watched him carefully, he knew there was still things going on in the agents head that no one had managed to clear out for him yet. He knew there were deep ever lasting issues he would never recover from and this was one of the reasons – when his report went over to Strauss – that he requested Reid was kept in the office. The team, well Emily and Rossi both considered him a liability.

Hotch watched Reid's eyes closely and could see something going on behind them. He saw Reid pull a small plastic pot from his jacket pocket and pour a few small white pills into his hand. He was going to offer Spencer some water, but he just put them in his mouth dry and crunched down on them not even noticing the foul bitter taste. For now Aaron didn't say anything, but that would have to be something he talked to Reid about at some point.

"Meperidine – a painkiller prescribed not off the street." Reid pushed the container over for Hotch to see. "Nothing illegal about it. It's for my leg. You know the one stopping me from doing my job."

"I didn't say…."

"You didn't have to. I know what you were thinking. I was just taking away the bother of you having to remember to ask." He picked up his coffee mug and with shaking hands took another sip. He pulled a pen out of the same pocket the pills had come from and looked at the box he had to sign his name in.

His eyes started watering and he could feel he was coming out in a sweat. Aaron was looking at the pill container with a puzzled look on his face which gave Reid the chance to wipe the area just above his top lip on the back of his hand and then rub at his eyes with the heel of hand. He felt ill. He felt sweaty and sick and his leg hurt so much it made his eyes water, but he would be damned if he was going to give in to this. That would be admitting defeat. That would show the others out there in the bull pen that he was not a useful team member. He concentrated for a while on the colours shooting across his vision and wished now he hadn't chewed the pills. It was a trick Floyd had shown him, but here at work he needed a clear head not this fuzzy strange one.

When his vision cleared he looked across at Hotch who was staring back.

"What was that all about?" Hotch slid the pill container back over to Reid.

Spencer picked them up and put them back securely in his pocket. "What? He looked out of the window towards the bull pen. I didn't see anything."

Hotch was worried. He now regretted fighting to get Reid back at work. He wasn't ready. He might be able to trick his way through psych evaluation after evaluation but he couldn't trick his way past Hotch.

"Sign the papers and I will take you home. Only paperwork here today, you don't need to be here for that."

He tried to steady his hands so he could sign his name. "And if a case comes in? You will leave and I will be sitting at home being a good housewife to Floyd."

"Your lifestyle was your choice Spencer. No body forced you into it."

He scribbled his name down in the places he needed and pushed the paper back over to Hotch. He wanted to find a smart reply but kept his mouth shut and pushing on the desk stood up. "A space of my own then?"

"I will see if I can sort something out for you. I can't promise anything."

"No of course you can't."

Aaron wasn't happy with this snappy moody Reid, but he was sure once he settled he would get back his old confidence and not feel the need to be on the defence all the time.

He checked he had his pen and pills and picked up his messenger bag – throwing it over his shoulder. Spencer looked over at the door – and closed his eyes in thought. "I'm going home then. Call me when I am needed."

Aaron watched Reid walk back to the door. The limp far more pronounced now than when he first arrived. "I will give you a lift." And Hotch was on his feet. He watched in the reflection on the door Reid wipe his hand over his mouth again.

"I can walk. I don't need your help." He flicked the lock on the door and pulled it open. The thought of walking all the way back to the elevator with his leg screaming at him made him feel sick and dizzy, but he was going to do this. He took a couple of steps forward and realised this was not possible. He was stupid, he should have used the crutch but he didn't want to look injured and now he was in the position of not even being able to walk the few treads down the stairs.

When the arm wrapped around his shoulder he jumped slightly. "Let me help you kid." Morgan.

"I don't need any help." Wiping at the tears of pain.

"That's good, but I am going to help you anyway. Last thing we need now is you passing out and cracking that genius head of yours open. It's too valuable."

Reid looked at Derek and tried to smile. "Thank you."

Aaron watched them leave together. It hurt that Reid would accept Morgan's help and not his.

…………………..

Derek dropped him off and helped him over to the elevator. "I would ask you up – but well you know."

"Yeah I know. You need to use a cane or something while you are healing. You will damage yourself further pushing like this."

"Yeah I know. I thought I could manage." A big sigh. "Well, I will let you know when I need a lift in."

Morgan nodded. "Yes you do that."

Reid pressed the elevator button and listened to the comforting rattle it made on its way down. He frowned as something flitted through his thoughts and then slid it to the side. He stepped in and pulled the doors shut. "Thank you Derek." And car slowly took him back up to where he lived.

There was a strong smell of cooking when Spencer arrived back. Cooking and something else.

Floyd was standing in the middle of the lounge floor with a mop and bucket. He looked up at Reid and scratched his nose. "You're back early."

"I don't feel good. What's that smell?" Screwing his nose up.

"Dinner. I made a chilli." Spencer just stood in the door way giving the room a quick profile. Nothing seemed out of place except Floyd and a mop and bucket and that smell.

"The other smell. The one you are trying to disguise by making the chilli." Reid still didn't move. "Did the therapist come?"

"Yes." Standing watching Reid. "What's wrong?" dropping the mop and walking slowly towards Spencer.

Reid's hand flicked towards where he used to wear his gun. A movement not missed of Flanders. "What's going on? Is that bleach I can smell?"

"I was going to ask you what the hell is going on. You look spooked. It's only me."

"What did she say?" Taking a step back towards the elevator.

"Who?" Taking a step forwards.

"The therapist."

"She told me to clean. So I did."

"We don't have anything to make chilli with. Where did you get the meat?" Another step back and his knee made an alarming 'Crack'

"It was delivered." Another step forwards and putting a hand out for Spencer to grab hold of. "Here hold on."

"Don't touch me!" His back was to the rear of the elevator. Panic making his heart pound and he could feel his stomach contents rising rapidly. Floyd stepped in close and wrapped his arms tightly around Reid.

"It's OK. Nothing has happened. I am just cleaning. She said it would help get rid of the pressure. She was right."

Reid was making strange whimpering sounds and Flanders could feel the breaths coming in irregular sobs.

"I have a receipt for the meat. I kept it to show you." He lifted Reid up off his feet and carried him to the bed room. "You need to calm down."

"F f floyd."

"Shush. I took my pills, I talked to that Cindy woman. I did cleaning and I cooked dinner." He touched Reid gently on the nose. "You have nothing to worry about." He sat on the bed next to Spencer for a minute looking at the pale face and the shaking hands. "Let me get you a coffee. Just stay there and rest your knee."

A small nod from Reid and Floyd stood up again. He watched the arms wrap around his chest and his eyes stare at the ceiling. With a sigh he left the bedroom and walked to the kitchen.

He poured the coffee and added a pile of sugar and then pulled a small twist of cellophane from his pocket and took out a pinch dropping it in the coffee. He put the twist back and pulled out a smoke and lit up. He could feel his eyes glazing in pleasure and he grinned at the mop and stirred the coffee.

"Here you are." Putting the coffee on the nightstand. "Do you need something for your knee babes?"

A shake of the head.

"Drink up. The sugar will make you feel better." Floyd propped Spencer up with pillows and handed him the drink. He moved to the bottom of the bed and pulled off Reid's shoes and socks (one grey and one black) and picked up a bottle of scented oils. He massaged Reid's feet until he saw his eyes drifting shut and the mug at risk of falling. He took the mug. Mostly gone. Good. He flicked the end of Reid's nose with his fingernail. Nothing. Fabulous. He took the mug to the kitchen and after a quick rinse stuck it in the dishwasher.

He then walked to the wall phone and punched in a number.

"It's Floyd." A pause. "No everything isn't fucking fine! What did you do to him? He came home like a scared rabbit. I won't have you doing this to him." Another pause. "Well I don't think he is ready to be back at work. His mind is still screwed." Listening. "Am I the only one thinking straight for a change?" gripping the phone with white knuckles. "I don't give a damn what he eval said – he cheats – he's not sodding well ready. You hear me?" Pacing for the distance the phone wire would permit. "I am the one caring for him – not you – however you would have liked it to be" Picking a red mark off the wall. "No I don't want you coming around. Stay away. Leave us alone." He slammed the phone down and looked at the mark on the wall

"Shit!"

He went and got the rag out of the bucket and started to scrub at the wall.

…………………..

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	3. Chapter 3 Cleaning

Cleaning.

_Raoul Duke__:- The possibility of physical and mental collapse is now very real. No sympathy for the Devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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The team sat in the roundtable room the following day. Rossi sat next to Hotch on one side and Morgan on the other. Prentiss was sitting with her back to the door and JJ was standing with the remote in her hand.

"They have found what appears to be dumping areas for the bones…." JJ was saying - flicking through pictures of piles of bones. "Some where in boxes and some in bags, all hidden in slightly different places but in the same twenty mile radius. They are still trying to work out how many victims there are but they haven't been disposed of as whole bodies. One bag for example…" click, click "Only had finger bones." Click "And another had teeth. Skulls are also mostly but not all together and they have been crushed." Click .

JJ looked over at Hotch and smiled.

"Tool marks?" Rossi wanted to know. He was making notes in a book.

"Crushing damage." JJ told him.

So this is where they were going. A tiny area on the boarders of Idaho and Montana.

They all wondered off the get their things needed for the jet out and Hotch walked to his office. He was about to pick up the phone when Rossi walked in. "I know what you are thinking. I am wondering if it is a good idea though."

"I said I would let him know. We could do with a hand here."

"Then call him in if he is needed. The man is sick. I saw him yesterday. He will be of no help to us."

"Dave…"

Rossi shrugged and started to leave Hotch's office. "It's your call Aaron, but he won't even know we have gone."

"I will know I have deceived him though Dave. I will tell him we are going but he isn't needed." Why he felt he needed Dave's approval was beyond him, but he felt he needed someone to back him up here.

He picked up the phone and made a call.

………………………

Floyd was up to his elbows in suds in the bathroom when the phone went. "Bloody hell, who's phoning at this hour?" He left the mess in the bathroom and walked quickly to the wall phone dripping suds on his way. He snatched up the phone and put it to his ear.

"What? – Hotchner what the hell do you want? Cant you leave us alone. After the damage you did yesterday – No I won't I am talking. You listen to me. Back off and leave us alone." Listening with white knuckles. "No he's sleeping – Yes I will tell him if I remember. Goodbye." Slammed the phone down

"Who – who w w was that?" A small voice from behind him.

"You friend Hotchner. They are going away on a trip – told me to tell you they will call if your services are needed." He watched as Spencer walked slowly towards him. No crutch again. Wet floor. He is going to slip. Floyd stood with bubbles still dripping off his arms to see if his prediction came true. "Stop Babes. The floor is wet." A sigh. As much as he wanted to see him fall he felt like being nice today. Yuck where did that sick idea come from?

"Oh." Reid looked down at the floor. "You washed the floor yesterday." A frown.

"I spilt some suds is all." and he flicked his soapy hands at Spencer.

"What are you doing?" Reid looked around to see what he was cleaning now.

"The tub. It was dirty. I am just cleaning it out." Floyd started to walk towards Reid. "You need to trust me."

Chew of the bottom lip "I thought they would call me in if they went away."

"Yeah well I told them to naff off. You're not ready. So don't go blaming them. Go fix coffee, and warm me some chilli for breakfast will you?"

"You are gross." Reid limped over to the kitchen area.

"Is why you love me though." And he quickly walked back to the bathroom with that hard pissed off look on his face.

……………….

By mid day they had both eaten and Floyd had locked himself in the bathroom with a bucket and bleach and smokes. Reid was at a bit of a loose end. He tapped on the bathroom door.

"Can I help?"

"No. Go and watch a DVD or something."

"Floyd, what are you doing?"

"Cleaning – leave me alone."

"When is your therapist coming today?"

"I don't know. I told her I didn't want to see her again. So I don't know Spence. Call and ask if you want."

"Where is the receipt f f for the meat?"

"On the counter where I left it. Spence love…"

"Yes?"

"Stop bugging me. Go to that comic store. Get a cab. Stock up on some stuff we haven't seen."

"Leave you h h here?"

"Yes…leave me here. I am capable of looking after myself for the hour and half it will take you."

"I'll c ccall the therapist – I can't s s see the receipt."

The bathroom door flew open and Floyd stood looking very pissed off. "You are checking up on me. Get the hell out and leave me alone."

"F f fl floyd"

"Shut your stupid mouth up and get the fuck out. You are acting like my parole officer not my lover. Get the hell out and don't come back until you can either string a sentence together or you can apologise in some new and interesting way which will make me forget what an irritating sodding bug your are today."

Reid stood with his mouth open just staring at Floyd. Then turned and limped slowly to the elevator. He wanted to say something – to shout an insult back but he knew he would just trip over his words again and make Floyd even more pissed off with him. He felt in his pocket for his pain killers and opened the elevator door. He felt a splat of soapy bubbles hit the back of his head just before he turned and pulled the doors across again. He leaned on the rear wall and closed his eyes listening to the rattle of the car taking him down. He didn't get out at the ground floor. He took the car right down to the basement and found a warm place over by the row or washers and dryers.

Spencer sat on the old bean bag someone had left and pulled out the pills from his pocket. He tipped two into his hand and looked at them for a while and then tipped two more in to it. He then lay back and popped them in crunching down hard and watching out for the colours and flashing lights it always gave him. All pain gone. All worries gone. Just a big colourful nothing.

………………………

The team arrived at the first dump site that afternoon. Rib and thigh bones were here. Piles of them in a wicker basket. They couldn't have been dumped more than a few weeks ago considering the condition of the basket. The evidence had been removed by now by the CSU lot. They stood shivering in the rain and wind looking at the odd place.

"Anything more you can tell us?" Hotch was asking.

"Just that there are no proper tool marks. There are marks on the bones though. Let me show you." He pulled out a file and showed a picture of a rib bone.

Hotch ran his finger over the strange pattern of marks on the photo. "These are not tool marks?"

"Not as such sir, no. Teeth marks. Human teeth marks."

"Was this the only bone with such marks?"

A shake of the head. "I wish it was. Most of the long bones have scrape marks like this."

Hotch closed his eyes and tried to think. "Have the bones been cooked?"

"That was the other odd thing. Yes some have and some haven't. About half and half. The skulls have all been boiled."

Aaron nodded. "And have you been able to identify any of these victims yet?"

"Yes sir, we think we know who a couple of them are, but only because they had surgical pins and or plates in the bones and we were able to trace it back to the surgeon and then the patient who they belonged to."

"Any links?"

"Not that we can find. Was hoping you would be able to tell us more."

Hotch took the photo and looked at it again.

"We need to get an expert down here to tell us more. These people have been picked for a reason, and the reason some are cooked (grimace) and some kept raw (fingers scratching his neck.) is specific. We just don't know the reason."

Hotch walked away and approached Morgan who was crouched looking into the whole the bones had been found. "Any ideas?"

Derek stood up and looked at Hotch. "We need to see the other sites, but Hotch I have nasty feeling about this."

"I was thinking of calling in an expert on this sort of thing." He handed the picture to Derek. He pointed out the scrape marks. "Tooth marks."

Morgan took the picture and looked at it closely. "I only know of one person with first hand knowledge of this kind of thing and he's not a Fed."

…………………………..

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	4. Chapter 4 The Bone Inspector

The Bone Inspector

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

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Finally he had cleared up. He put the bucket and mop away in the cupboard and stood arms folded feeling pleased with himself. He stood in the middle of the lounge floor with his arms crossed wondering where the hell Spencer had got to.

He went to the phone and called his cell, but the ring came from the counter surface. He had left without his phone. "Bloody idiot he is sometimes." He walked over and picked up the phone and looked at it. "Where the hell are you?"

He stirred the huge pan of chilli and took a taste off the spoon. He smiled and licked his lips. He lit up and walked over to the TV switching it on as he past and then stood and looked out of the window to see if he could see Spence lurking around outside sulking. The street was clear except for a couple of scooters and a van. They picked this place because it was quiet, and now it drove him mad due to lack of sound so when the wall phone rang he jumped and dropped his smoke onto the newly scrubbed floor.

"Shit." He picked it up and looked at the ash on the floor. "Damnit." A deep frown as he picked up the phone.

"Spence?"

He tried to reach the cupboard with the mop in it. "Sorry hold the line." He dropped the phone and made a dash for the mop and returned picking up the phone and putting it to his ear.

"Hello? – Hotch? No he's gone out." he started to clean the ash up with the mop. "No not a clue – told him hour and half, he's been longer so cant help you." On hand and knees looking at the floor. "Shit..Hotch hold the line again." He dropped the phone and ran for the bucket and a bottle of cleaning spray 'with added bleach cleaning power.' Back on his hands and knees spraying the floor. "Sorry about that. What do you want?" Distracted look on his face as he sprayed and scrubbed. "And you think I might be able to help? How?" Sitting back on his haunches to inspect the floor. "I see. When?" Standing. "I will pack a few bits then." He looked up at the clock on the kitchen wall. "Ten minutes is fine." He put the phone back on the hook and stood looking at the floor. "Damnit – I need to redo the whole bloody floor now."

He mopped frantically for ten minutes before a horn sounded outside. He still had the mop and hadn't packed anything. But then again he didn't need anything.

Floyd thought about leaving Reid a note, but to hell with the little weirdo freak. His fault he didn't take his phone. He called the elevator up and turned off the lights. One more glance at the floor and he was gone.

……………………..

He opened his eyes and for a moment didn't know where he was. He could hear someone whispering but his eyes wouldn't focus. He searched in his pocket for his glasses but didn't have them with him so carefully and slowly he tried to stand. The whisperings stopped and a voice could hear properly spoke to him. "Dr Reid? Are you alright? You were spark out there dear."

He squinted in the direction of the voice and nodded. "Erm yes thank you." And slowly and in more pain than he had been for quite some time, he walked back to the elevator. Not only was his knee sending shocks of pain all down his leg but the place on the same leg where he had cut himself was throbbing. He needed to have a bath. A nice long soak in the tub and a glass of wine, and some nice chat with the man he loved.

The room was dark but the light switch was right by the entrance. He flicked on the lights and called out to Floyd. There was no answer. He could smell bleach again and frowned looking at the floor. Nothing seemed out of place or wrong. It was just the smell. He walked slowly to the bathroom and was about to go in when he saw a note taped to the door. _'It took me all bloody day to clean up in there. Do NOT use the tub or I will have to hurt you.'_

Well with a soaking now not available he decided to just lay on the bed and wait for Floyd to get back. Maybe he could shower with him – it felt like forever since Floyd had given him a back rub in the shower.

With that happy thought on his mind he stripped off and put on his pyjama bottoms and collapsed on the bed waiting for Floyd to come home.

………………..

He was met the other end at the airport by Hotch and Morgan. They took him to their SUV and started to fill him in on some of the details.

"We are taking you to the local PD. I need you to stay close, and whatever happens do not let them get to you. You are here as our expert."

"Fine."

When they pulled up Hotch put a hand on Floyd's arm. "I don't now how they are going to react to what you say. If it is too much just walk out. I will take your cue."

Floyd nodded. "I promise not to try to eat anyone." A smirk.

The place was busy and immediately Floyd felt uncomfortable and turned and walked out again. Hotch followed him.

He stood and watched the man with so much face taking deep breaths and preparing himself to confront people who might insult him, and who he couldn't attack. This was a big deal for him.

"OK I'm ready." And he walked back in again.

They showed him pictures which he seemed to barely glance at. "You have examples? Not just the photographs?"

One of the detectives brought out a box of assorted bones collected from different places. He wanted to know just how expert this man was.

Floyd didn't touch them at first he just stood looking at them. He ran his fingers through his hair and picked up the photographs again and frowned.

"These were all found in the same place?" The detective just shrugged. The BAU team didn't know. Rossi stood close and watched this expert at work.

"This one." He held up a rib. "has been boiled. The meat stripped by hand. These are fingernail markings. This only happens when the bones are softened when boiled. This one." Holding up another rib. "wasn't cooked. This was eaten raw from the bone. There teeth and nail marks. No tool marks."

The detective spoke. "Why cook some and eat some raw?"

Floyd looked over at him. "Depends, there are a few reasons. Sometimes it is just timing. Sometimes the meat tastes better raw. If the meat is from an elderly catch you will probably want to boil or roast."

"No. I wouldn't." The detective was giving Floyd a funny look.

"A young catch is nice ripped straight from the bone. This is interesting. The bone's been split and the marrow sucked out. This was from a child." Holding up a bit of bone. "This was from an older catch." He looked over at Hotch who was frowning but he nodded.

"Carry on Flanders."

"Ok another reason you might want to cook it is if it was maybe diseased or at risk of disease. Druggies need to be boiled. Prostitutes need to be left. Don't touch them. Rent boys can be taken raw, as long as you don't eat the offal."

"That's enough!" The detective walked towards Floyd and snatched the bone from his hands. "Who the hell are you?"

"He is our expert." Rossi said quietly.

"Do you have the skulls?" Floyd wanted to know.

"We know the skulls have been boiled and then crushed. We just don't know why."

"The brains taste better if cooked still in the skull. Boiling would be the best method. They come out sweeter for some reason. Obviously you can remove them and cook them up away from the catch but its better to keep them as one item for as long as you can."

"Floyd."

He turned to look at Hotch just as the detectives fist landed. It knocked Floyd side ways and into the bench with the bones on it. Hotch was sure he saw a red glow reflecting in his eyes.

Morgan jumped forwards. "Whoah whoah…that's enough. We called him in cos he knows what he is talking about. That's un-necessary." He put a calming hand on Floyd's shoulder and Hotch suggested that they both took some air.

"But he's talking like he eats people!" the detective shouted. "What the hell sort of expert are you?" At Floyd's back

He spun around and smiled. "A hungry one."

…………………………..

Reid awoke in the morning still alone. He had to admit defeat today and he grabbed the crutch from next to the bed. He wouldn't be doing much walking on it today. He would call the hospital later and ask again about the injections they offered. He declined them before for obvious reasons but this was silly. He couldn't put any weight on his leg now.

He put the coffee on and poured himself a bowl of cornflakes and added a lot of sugar and cold milk. He was worried that Floyd was still not back and he picked up his phone and called Floyd's cell. It went to voicemail. He tried Hotch. Voicemail. He left messages and then called the doctor about his leg. 'sorry he is away this week. Call back on Monday.'

He walked to the couch and sat and watched discovery channel for three hours then took some meds to try to take the edge off the pain.

Reid knew he should swallow them, but the feeling was so much more complete when he chewed.

He tipped three into his hand and looked at them and then at his leg, and then added another 3.

Spencer rested his head back and crunched down.

……………………..

* * *


	5. Chapter 5 Pus and Bone

Pus and Bone

_Mistrust those in whom the urge to punish is strong: __- Friedrich Nietzsche_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He was laying on the floor when he opened one eye a crack. He wasn't sure why or where he was. Slowly he rolled over onto his back and opened the other eye.

He squinted at the ceiling trying to remember what had happened. Floyd wasn't here. Was he back now? What was the time? He looked over at the clock in the kitchen but his eyes couldn't focus properly.

Spencer needed to get up and get a drink. He had a very nasty taste in his mouth but as he moved he realised that his leg felt wet. He moved his hand down his pyjama bottoms until he was almost at the knee. Definitely wet. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked. It was hard to see through the colour of the dark blue pyjamas but it didn't look like blood and now the smell. He turned quickly to his side and vomited on Floyd's perfect floor.

He sat up again and with shaking hands pulled the one leg of his pyjamas up so he could see what was going on. Now he could smell bleach and vomit and the unholy smell of pus.

The skin on his knee was swollen and a blackish red colour. Along the scar lines where the stitches had been the skin was splitting open and pus was oozing out. Spencer moved a hand down to the mess which used to be his knee and put pressure on it. He sat and watched at thick green and yellow goo slimed its way out and between his fingers.

He needed to call the hospital. He needed to do it now, but first – he looked at the floor, he needed to clear up this mess. Crying out in pain and his stomach heaving he managed to pull himself up to one knee. The good knee. He saw his pot of pills laying on the couch where he had dropped them and with shaking hands reached out.

"Please come home Floyd." He muttered to himself and tipped a few pills into his hand- he didn't bother counting. He crunched down on them and waited for the sweet oblivion to take him again.

Almost in slow motion he began to slide back down onto the floor and as he slid through the pus and vomit he had deposited – still warm – he started to seize.

……………………

"I will kill him – you realise that don't you?" Hotch was trying to get Floyd away from the building. He could sense the fragile sanity Floyd had control of right now slowly slipping away.

"He over reacted." He turned and looked at the expression on Flanders face. "Morgan will talk to him."

"I want an apology or I go home now." He pulled a smoke out of one pocket and a lighter out of the other. Hotch watched the shaking hands trying to light it, but he fumbled and dropped it onto the cold ground. Hotch bend down and picked it up.

"Let me." He flicked it and held out the flame.

Floyd nodded as he took a long drag from the smoke "Thanks." But the shaking continued.

"Where is your overnight bag?" Hotch was beginning to walk to the car Floyd was picked from the airport in.

"I don't have one." Following. "I don't need stuff."

"I was going to take you to the room I booked you for the night."

A nod. "Don't you want me to say more about those bones. If you could give me more time I could start to divide them up for you." He put a shaking hand out and touched Aaron on the cheek. "You know how jealous I got? I see why he likes you."

Aaron took the hand and removed it from his face. "Can you try to keep your mind on why you are here please?"

Floyd looked back towards the building and took a deep breath. "If I can see all of the bones I can see if I can see a connection between them."

Hotch nodded. "Come on then."

Floyd finished his smoke and slowly started to walk back to the building.

Morgan was waiting at the doorway. He gave a nod to Floyd. "I had words."

"Great. The bastard attacked me. Had I done that would you have had 'words' with me?" He pushed Derek to one side and walked back into the building.

The room fell into a strange silence when Floyd walked back in. He didn't know what Morgan had said to them, and right now wasn't that interested in finding out. He just wanted to see these bones and start to figure out who up here had been eating people.

"Well? I cant do my job if you don't give me the tools." He walked towards the bones scattered on the table. Hotch was about a foot behind him. He picked up the first one. "Get me a clean box or something so I can start to sort these for you. Then I can see who and why they were chosen."

A crate was put down on the floor next to him. A marker pen please. I will write on them. Might be easier." He took a pen from a nervous hand and picked up a bone. He ran fingers over the surface and put it up to his nose to smell it. A deep sigh and if you had been looking at his face – a look of delight passed over it. "Female. Roasted in butter and garlic. It would have taken a while to prepare this." He turned it over in his hands and gently stroked it. "Its been cooked at an even temperature, so this was prepared in a standard oven and not over a fire in the open." He ran his tongue along the bone. "Its quite" A deep sigh almost of longing. "Yes its quite fresh. The last week or so."

He wrote 'fem b and g standard roast.' Along the length and handed it to Hotch. "Look at it. Not many teeth marks – slow roasted the meat would have just fallen off. Lovely."

Hotch shook his head at him and put the bone in the crate.

The detective spoke now. "So this person is roasting his victims in his kitchen?"

"Not all of them." He picked up another bone. "This one has definitely been boiled and the meat removed by hand in lumps. You can see the marks where it has been ripped off, but no teeth marks. Probably made up into something else."

"What do you mean?" The detective moved closer cautiously to get a better look. Hotch was looking over his shoulder.

"I like to make up a nice chilli. If the meat is not good, or there is a risk of some disease…." He didn't finish. He felt something cold and hard pressed against his ear and heard Morgan shouting.

"Sir put down your weapon."

He couldn't see Hotch but he was sure he heard the whisper of a gun being pulled from behind him. A glance up saw the other police officers had also drawn guns and had them pointed at Floyd.

"You son of a bitch!" The detective was shouting pressing the gun harder. "You shoot me FBI and I take his brains out anyway."

……………………..

When he woke up this time he knew something was very wrong. He could hardly see and his whole body was shaking. He had welded himself to the floor in muck and he thought he was going to burst into flames he felt so hot. Spencer knew he needed to get to the phone, but it was half way up the wall on the other side of the apartment. There was no point in calling for help because there was no one here and no one would come anyway. He tried to pull himself out of the mess he was laying in. If he could get to the bed room. There was a phone in there and water. He needed water. He could feel sweat dripping off his face onto the floor in the effort of moving. Cramps in his stomach and now in his hands and feet. His lips were dry and cracking, but he pulled him self forwards inch by painful inch, foot by never ending foot, until he reached the wall. The wrong wall and his body suddenly tightened then screamed in pain as another seizure hit him – cracking his head against the hard brick wall and ripping open more of the scar tissue on his knee.

……………………

With a strange calmness Floyd reached up and put his hand around the barrel of the gun pressed to his head. "Get off me." A hard deep voice.

"You murdering son of a whore" The gun was ripped from the detectives hand and dropped to the floor. Guns were never something Floyd liked to use. Far too impersonal. His hand moved at the speed of lightening to the mans neck and he started to squeeze.

"You don't know the half of it you stupid bastard. You will say sorry before I break your fucking neck right here." Guns clicking getting ready to shoot.

Hotch put a hand over Floyd's "Let him go."

"You see what he did? The bastard put a gun to me. I am dragged away from my cleaning and my man to talk to these people and they pull a gun on me." Fingers pressing harder. "I'm going to kill him Hotch."

"Let him go Floyd before they find a reason to pull the trigger." Hotch tried to keep everything calm.

And Floyd pounced knocking the man onto his back. His teeth embedding into the detective's neck as guns fired and people screamed and blood squirted and Morgan yelled and Hotch fell.

………………………….

* * *


	6. Chapter 6 The Nurse

The Nurse.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine

* * *

Through the pain he could feel a hand on his back. He wanted to open his eyes but every movement hurt. He wanted to ask who this person was it but his mind clouded over again and he couldn't think.

Spencer could hear voices. Muttering conspiratorial voices in hushed whispers and then a voice closer. "It's alright, I am here now."

A woman's voice. Unfamiliar. He tried to look and see who it was but opening his eyes made him want to be sick. Spencer could feel every muscle in his body straining and twitching. He could smell the bleach on the floor and the vomit spread over his skin, and below all of that the smell of rotting flesh. He felt a straw being put to his lips but he couldn't suck.

He was flipped over onto his back and someone held open his mouth while someone else poured a liquid into his mouth. "Drink up. It will make you feel better."

Nice words. But he wasn't able to comply. He could feel the liquid numbing his mouth but he couldn't swallow it. He started spitting the liquid back out again choking as it dripped down the back of his throat. A hand lifted his face up he could feel someone's breath across his cheek. Then he was released. He fell back onto the floor his head making a hollow 'thunk' sound and it bounced off the floor boards. And now he was moving. Someone was dragging him across the floor by his arm and the voices became faint and indistinct again as his eyes rolled back and he made odd gagging sounds which were ignored.

……………………….

The detective was screaming as Floyd ripped into his neck with his teeth and punctured skin on the man's upper arms with his fingers. Floyd was moaning in a sort of animalist howl as he ripped moving down now to his shoulder. Licking and sucking at the wound he had made no other thoughts in his mind but to tear and drink and eat. Someone was pulling him away, but at this point Floyd's mind had flipped and he spun to attack the person behind him.

Morgan was pulling Flanders back with one hand and pointing a gun with the other shouting all the time "Back off – everyone back off and drop your weapons."

Hotch was laying at his feet groaning and holding a hand to his shoulder.

Breathing hard - blood dripping from his chin he looked at Morgan. Had it been anyone else he would certainly have attacked, but something stopped him. Not the gun pointing at him, but something deeper, something about Morgan him self prevented Floyd from ripping out his heart where he stood.

Then something hit him. Hard. On the chest. He staggered back a step as something else hit him this time on the side of his head, then as he went down to his knees his shoulder exploded in a mass of blood and bone fragments.

There was a sudden silence. The only sounds were from the detective who was writhing and screaming, and from Hotch who was groaning and calling for a medic and the strange guttural noises coming from Floyd who was laying on his front twitching in a pool of blood.

"Christ!" Morgan shouted "What the hell?!" He looked around the room as he crouched down beside Hotch. Someone ran in to help the detective, and from outside ran Rossi and Prentiss.

"What happened?" Rossi wanted to know.

Derek just shook his head. "Floyd happened."

Prentiss moved in next to Floyd and put a hand gently on the back of his neck. "It's ok the medics are on their way."

"I'll fucking kill the bastard." Floyd said. "He ruined my shirt." Then his eyes rolled back and he was silent.

Prentiss put two fingers to his neck and could feel a steady strong pulse. How she could she wasn't sure but this man was a long way from dead. She frowned and moved over to where Hotch was.

"I don't believe this!" Morgan was staring at the cops standing watching the carnage. "Who the hell shot SSA Hotchner? Which one of you crazy mothers shot a Fed and his assistant?"

…………………………

He could feel the movement of the elevator car as he lay unable to move on the floor. He had no idea who these people were or what they wanted with him, but he thought he would die if they didn't do something soon. His heart was thumping too hard and his muscles still twitching. Again he tried to open his eyes but he couldn't seem to remember how to do it. He moved his hands up in front of him trying to grab hold of something but someone slapped them down again.

"Stop that." And feet now standing on his hands to keep him still.

……………………….

As Floyd was waking up in one hospital, Spencer was waking in another. He was strapped down and had been intubated. There was something strapped across his forehead keeping his head still. He tried to move his fingers and toes. Nothing. He wanted to call out for help, but he had the tube down his throat. He just lay looking at the white ceiling through foggy eyes. Still not able to focus properly.

A slight panic set in but the machine kept his lungs full with air whether he wanted it too or not. It felt like his chest was going to explode and a monitor next to his bed suddenly bleeped out loud and clear.

He felt a hand on his forehead and then through the panic he heard a voice. "It's OK love." A female voice. "You had an accident. You are in hospital." He tried to see who it was talking to him but she was out of visual range. "You don't remember do you? You had a fit love, and fell down the elevator. You have a broken neck, so you need to lay still. We are looking after you. I am going to drain your knee for you, but to be honest an amputation might be better now. As you wont be walking again. I am sure the doctor will talk to you about that though."

Spencer wanted to tell her to take the thing out of his mouth, but she was moving away now and pulling back the covers over his legs. He couldn't see what she was doing to him, and he couldn't feel it, which was more worrying for him – a broken neck? He couldn't remember what happened. The sudden smell of pus from his leg made his stomach heave and again he started to choke on the intubating tube and again he tried without success to move his fingers and toes. The only thing he seemed to be able to do was move his eyes.

The nurse walked back over to where he could at last see her. She looked down and smiled.

"I can't take the tube out dear. You will die without it. It might feel like you could breath on your own, but I promise you that is not the case. Neck injuries can be deceptive though. You must relax so we can see what is happening properly." A sweet smile which would have had Reid screaming if he could.

………………………….

He had a dressing on his head, a drain in his chest, and a horrible wound to his shoulder but he still managed to sit up.

……………

Floyd help me.

_Where are you?_

_What happened?_

They say I broke my neck.

I fell.

I need you here.

Where are you?

_I got shot._

_I am coming._

_Which hospital?_

I don't know.

I am inutbated and I can't move.

Come and get me.

_I'm on my way home Babes. _

_Just hang on there._

_I will find you._

…………………………….

He slid his legs off the side of the bed and tried to stand. The bastards had done a good job, he was finding healing this quickly not so easy, but he was on his feet and staggering to the wardrobe, pulling drips out of his hands and breathing in short jerky breaths.

A nurse burst into the room with Morgan and Rossi in tow just as he dropped down to his knees.

"Flanders what on earth are you playing at. Get back into bed." Rossi bent down and pulled an arm around his shoulder to help him stand.

"Spencer. You have to help Spence. He's in hospital. Help him." And he dragged back to his bed.

Morgan stood by he bed while they put the drips back in. "I will contact Reid. I am sure you just had a nightmare. I will tell you what's going on. Relax and stop trying to get out of bed. You will be no help to Reid if you kill yourself"

Floyd nodded and lay back down again. He opened his mind to talk to Reid again, but all he got back was a long drawn out scream.

……………………………

* * *


	7. Chapter 7 Fundamentally Floyd

Fundamentally Floyd

_The man visited by ecstasies and visions, who takes dreams for realities is an enthusiast; the man who supports his madness with murder is a fanatic: __-__Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

It was a fairly easy task to put something in his drip to keep his mind and vision foggy.

She took off the restraints all the time talking in a calm voice to Spencer. "It's OK I know you are scared. But you will get used to it. Night after night laying here not being able to move. You poor darling. Flanders is so going to miss you my precious."

She rolled Reid onto his side and massaged his back with creams to stop his skin getting sore. The injection went into his upper spine. It was quick and easy, but obviously for Reid not painless. She watched as his back arched and his fingers twitched as the liquid coursed its way to his spine.

"Don't worry. You will eventually get used to it."

She rolled him onto his back again and checked the drips going into the back of his hands and then double checked the tube still forcing Spencer to breath. Fluids in and fluids out counted measured and recorded. She had strapped a support around his head and neck and now replaced the strap going across his forehead. She looked at the fear in Reid's eyes and smiled. Then the restraints were replaced around his lower legs and his wrists.

The nurse picked up a damp sponge and wiped it across Reid's mouth. "I can get someone to come in and read to you if you want? Would you like that? No? Alright then. Just sleep Dr Reid. I will be back later to check on you." And he was alone again unable to move unable to think, unable to do anything with his mind but scream for help.

……………………

As fast as they were getting Floyd settled again he was trying to get up. The doctors told him in no uncertain terms that he should be dead and they didn't understand why he wasn't. There was now a bullet lodged in his brain which they were too scared to remove, a through and through chest wound which had ripped right through a lung, and this collar bone was shattered and held together with pins and bolts. He must stay in bed. He must not move. How he was talking and breathing on his own was beyond them all. He was a virtual miracle, but all Floyd wanted was to talk to Hotchner.

Morgan wasn't listening to him when he said "All I can hear is Spence screaming. You have to help him." Derek was convinced it was a nightmare and this was one of the reasons Floyd hated Morgan's kind. Not only did they look and act wrong, but they tasted bad too.

It was the next morning when Morgan still couldn't get hold of Spencer that he called Garcia and asked her to pop over and see if all was ok with him. She had been there before and knowing Floyd wasn't going to be there bad it a less worrisome visit.

She rang the buzzer and got no answer, but as the elevator was on ground level with the doors open she walked in and pressed for the floor. There was a funny smell in there. Like someone hand been sick. A sweet smell.

When it arrived on the apartment level she pulled the doors open and just stood and looked. "Oh." Was the only sound that came out. She opened her phone and called Derek.

"Sweets, something has happened. You were right to check up on him – I don't know but this apartment is all messed up. It stinks of sick and something else sickly and sweet. Maybe rotting food. You need to come home and check this out for yourself."

She stepped back into the elevator and went back down to where her car was parked. Surely if something had happened someone would have seen. The area was so quiet that anything out of the ordinary would be noticed. The only things parked in the street were two battered old scooters.

………………..

He waited until the nightlights had come on and then pulled the things out of the back of his hand again and with a deep breath and a sucking popping sound he pulled the drain from his chest. There was no way he was going to lay in bed being kept away from Spence when he knew something bad was going on. They weren't telling him. He knew they knew stuff and wouldn't tell him.

The medications he should have been taking for his – as they put it – unstable personality – had been fed to him through the drips. It would have to do until he got home or found a new supply. Again he stumbled his way to the place they had put his clothes. Black bootcut jeans and a shirt with bullet holes and much blood. He stood and looked at the mess but had no options now. He pulled on the jeans and buckled up his belt. The shirt he would have to replace but or now this would do. He slid his arms through the sleeves but didn't bother doing up the buttons. Fine silk – shredded. After pulling on his boots he checked there was no one out side the door and walked slowly holding onto the wall to the next room. He pushed open the door and slipped in.

A man was sleeping on this side his back to the door. Floyd stood for a second and looked at the sleeping form and took in a deep breath.

"Get clothes first." He muttered to himself and took the two steps needed to reach the guys cupboard. A shirt in a white cotton, and oh nice! A waistcoat. He quickly put them on, this time taking the time to do up buttons, and then pulled the man's thigh length leather coat out of the cupboard and slipped it on. Making sure to stuff his own shirt in the jacket pocket.

Now he was looking back at the man again. A terminally ill guy – well if he wasn't he is now. A smirk and a few steps forward and he was leaning in smelling the flesh.

"Diseased. Such a shame. Died in his sleep. These things happen." Floyd snaked his hand over the mans head and placed it firmly over his nose and mouth. The other hand he put on the guys chest, and with one knee on the bed he pulled him close.

Floyd could feel his breaths getting stronger and the man tried to struggle but it didn't last long. This was the thing with the ill. No fight left in them. Once he had stopped struggling he released him and took his knee off the bed. He turned him over so he was laying on his back and ran his fingers over the now dead man's lips. "Thank you." And with a smile he slid out of the door and made his way towards the elevator.

His next problem was complete lack of funds or transport. He could have started to walk and hope to hitch, but he himself was still feeling weak and although his inner self was calm again now he didn't think he was strong enough to walk the as far as Quantico from Montana, but he had to clear the area before they noticed he was missing.

Floyd wasn't into car jacking, so really his only option was to walk to the highway and attempt a hitch. He closed his eyes against the pain he was in and started to walk into the night.

When about two hours later a truck finally pulled over he was about to give up and sit down until Morgan came and dragged him back again. Slave controlling the master. He didn't want that. Dirty blood.

"Where're you going?" The trucker called out.

"Anywhere as long as its east."

"Jump on up Mr. I'm glad to have some company."

'_Oh you might regret that decision.'_

By sun up the next day Floyd was fully sated. The trucker's half clothed torn and abused body was thrown from the cab into a ditch, and Floyd wiped his mouth clean and smiled.

_Spence?_

Nothing.

_I don't know if you can hear me babes._

_I am on my way._

_Everything is going to be OK._

A dull muffled static was the only reply he got.

…………………………….

* * *


	8. Chapter 8 The Xray

The Xray

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

The doctor came in to see Spencer in the morning. He stood and smiled at him and checked his obs and smiled again. He looked at his leg and pulled a face and then came to stand where Reid could see him, almost.

"I expect you are a bit worried Dr Reid. The main problems we are facing right now is the damage done to your neck in the fall." Big eyes staring back at him. "And the damage done to your leg. Neither of which are repairable. Would you like to see the Xray of the damage you did in the fall? I am sure you would. I will get them for you. They clearly show major damage, and now we know how bad the damage is. It's not good news I am afraid." Tears of frustration trickled out of the corners of Spencer's eyes, unable to talk or move his head, and unable to move his limbs.

"The thing is this Dr Reid – we will be wasting time and resources attempting to save your leg now. It has gone beyond what we would call salvageable." A hand on Spencer's shoulder. "I have scheduled surgery for tomorrow morning. I will take the leg off about six inches above the knee." Reid started making gagging sounds as he fought against the tube in his throat. "Relax Dr Reid – you must relax. The damage to your neck means you need that tube to breathe with. You need that there. Spencer – you don't mind me calling you that do you? – Spencer your vocal ability will be zero anyway. You are very lucky to be alive. I will go and get those Xrays for you to look at." Squeeze of the shoulder and the doctor was gone.

Spencer lay and stared at the ceiling. He wanted to move his fingers or toes to prove they were wrong. He wanted them to take out the tube so he could show them he could breathe on his own – that he could talk and cry and scream and laugh and eat and drink. He needed Floyd and Hotch and he needed Derek, but above all he needed his mum.

…………………..

Aaron was dragging himself out of bed wondering how once again Floyd had just walked out of somewhere and not be noticed. Security camera's were inspected and looked at again and then tapes sent to Garcia. "We need to know how he can by pass them so easily."

His arm in a sling and the case still needing to be solved and their expert run off in goodness knows what condition. He would be spotted. His clothes are covered in blood. No one would give him a lift, and a quick check didn't seem pick up on any missing vehicles.

They stood in the corridor talking about what way to go next. Floyd had seemed convinced something was wrong with Reid. Garcia had confirmed that the apartment was not in a very savoury condition. Morgan was now on route back to see if he could work out where Reid was.

Rossi pulled his notebook out of his pocket and gave Hotch a sideways glance. "We do need – to carry on with this. Your expert helped. The rest we need to do without him."

Hotch pulled a pained face and turned to Rossi. "Dave, he could have solved this for us. We are really no further forwards expect we now know he has access to an oven."

"The one time I will say we need your map boy here. I'm going to have another look at the dump sites." Rossi started to walk away.

"My map boy – he is brilliant. You need to give him a chance."

Hotch watched David Rossi nod his head as he walked off down the corridor. "Until that time I will get a road map." He waved a hand good bye and was gone.

Aaron moved out of the way as a bed with someone completely covered was wheeled by. He stood looking for a second and then his stomach did a familiar knot turn. "Wait!" and he was walking fast down the corridor after them. "What happened?" Hotch pulled the covers off the man's face.

"He passed away during the night sir."

"You were expecting this?"

"It's never a case of knowing the exact time. We knew it would be this week at some point."

"What room was he in?" Hotch couldn't take his eyes off the man's face.

"Seven. Is it important?"

"I'm not sure yet. There will be an autopsy?"

"I really don't now sir. We were expecting this. It's no mystery."

Hotch covered the face over again _'Floyd you are a monster'_

_I know; that's why you love me._

………………………..

He had pulled the truck up a couple of miles back and now walked with money in his pocket and a smirk on his face towards the diner. He liked this life. Wandering around, nothing to worry about, no one harassing him about one murder or missing person or another. He had a pocket full of twigs and leaves and a few lengths of bark. He had also salvaged a spool of cotton and a roll of green waxed string from the cab. Now he wanted to sit and relax and think of nothing.

OK he realised he needed to find Spencer. But this was just too good. The smell of the leaf mould, the wind in his hair and the crunching of things under foot. He pulled out a smoke and put it to his lips after the first rush of poisons into his body he closed his eyes and smiled a real smile. He put his hand to the dressing on the side of his head. He would need to sort out a hat or something.

"Bullet lodged in my brain huh? You just have to be different don't you."

He rubbed it lovingly and walked on towards the diner. Creatures and insects scuttling away as they sensed him coming.

……………………..

The doctor was back and leaning over Reid.

"I have the pictures to show you."

Big wet eyes looked back at him

"Oh, have you been crying? I realise you must be terrified Dr Reid but it is all for the best." He held up an Xray for Spencer to see. It showed very clearly a very nasty neck break. Reid knew what he was looking at and it made his stomach cramp and his head scream and the tube started to choke him again. "You see that obviously. You need to stop fighting the tube. I will sort something more permanent after the op." The doctor ran a finger across Reid's throat. "We will insert the tube in here. The machine will still breathe for you. You chest muscles no longer work you see. They think you are dead. Which – yes – you should be." He took the Xrays out of Reid's range of sight and sighed. "So I will see you tomorrow. Sort out the leg, and make your breathing more comfortable. You still won't be able to talk though. Sorry about that." And he was gone again.

The nurse came in and wipe the wet sponge over his lips and brushed his hair for him. She wiped away the tears and smiled. "Don't worry. Everything will work out in the end, you'll see." And she bent over and gave him a light kiss on the mouth. "Oh sorry. I shouldn't have done that. But you are so irresistible all defenceless there."

Quickly she undid some of the restraints and turned him so she could see the back of his neck. Again she plunged a needle deep into the back of his neck and again she saw his body jerk and bend in pain. Flipping him back again she tied him down again. "This is because you were fitting. Don't need you falling off the bed now do we? It also stops your useless limbs from being pulled out of alignment as the tendons shrink through lack of use. I have this for you."

One hand at a time she took and strapped a contraption around it. It slipped over his fingers and went up his arm to his elbow. She strapped it tightly and then strapped the thing back to the bed. "That will prevent your wrists from bending as the muscles and tendons die."

She looked into his eyes which seemed to have gone even bigger. "See you later then. I will just turn off these lights if you don't mind. It is very bad for a person never to be in complete darkness. It gives way to all sorts of nightmares in adult hood."

She checked his fluids in and out and made a careful note of it.

"Sleep well. It's your big day tomorrow."

And he was plunged into complete darkness. The only light was from the lights blinking on the machines next to his bed.

* * *


	9. Chapter 9 The Doll Maker

The Doll Maker

_I once had a sweet little doll, dears, The prettiest doll in the world: -__Charles Kingsley _

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He ordered coffee and slid the correct change over the counter.

He found a bench seat by a window. He needed light and gradually emptied his pockets of the goodies he had picked up.

He lay out the twigs and bits of bark to one side, and a small mound of moss and leaves to another. The string and thread he placed away but in front of him.

Next there were tiny strips of something damp wrapped in cellophane. He looked down and smiled. It seemed like forever since he had felt this content. He rubbed the dressing on his head again and started to gather up twigs - wrapping thread and string around them and bending them into place. He tied the tiniest of knots and snapped bits off with his teeth.

Sonja the waitress walked over and looked down at this strange man. "Top up?" she asked him.

His hand went to the dressing again and he frowned. "Yes'm." And a nod.

"You hurt ya self. What did you do?" She poured the coffee from her pot into Floyd's mug.

"I got a bullet lodged in my brain." He muttered.

"A bullet in your what?!" She stood with her mouth open just staring at him.

"Brain darling. My brain. Here put your finger on this knot while I bite it off."

"Bite my finger off?"

He looked up and the yellow haired teenager. "Tempting as that may be – Sonja – That's not what I meant."

"I have scissors." She pulled a small pair of silver scissors out of her pocket and put them on the table.

Raised eyebrow. "Wonderful my pet, now if you had a sewing needle too I would be totally in your debt."

"I have a small emergency sewing pack outback. I'll get it. What are you making?"

"A gift for my lover." He looked at the thing he was making and smiled.

"She's a lucky lady."

Floyd grimaced. "You don't know the half of it sweetheart – now be a good girl and get me that needle will you?"

He sat through the night drinking coffee and sewing and twisting and pulling and bending. A couple of times he got up and left. "Don't touch anything. I'll be right back."

Floyd knew they wouldn't touch. They wouldn't dare. He collected more leaves and little berries.

The woman who ran the place asked at one point. "Don't you ever sleep?"

He looked up at her. "Rarely." Then carried on

At sun up he pushed everything to the side and lay back on the bench and closed his eyes. He wasn't sleeping, just pulling in the energy for the next leg of his journey.

Laying on the table was a row of woodland fairies about six inches high. Each made with tiny stitches and covered in a now hardening strange thin leather. Wings made of leaves and dresses made of tiny colour strips from the outside of the berries – different shade of reds and orange, and the occasional feather.

_Spence?_

FLOYD!

_Babes I am on my way._

Help me!

_Spence – Tell me where you are._

_Spence?_

_Spencer!_

A muffled static.

Floyd grabbed a doll off the table and left the others behind. He left the diner at a fast walk.

……………………..

As Aaron got on the jet, Derek was entering Reid's apartment, Floyd was walking towards Quantico and Spencer was being readied for surgery.

The doctor talked through quickly what they were going to do, but Spencer's mind was not able to take in the information. He tried to listen and make sense of what was being said. Surgery on his neck. Pins and plates to hold his neck in place. A new air way will be created and a tube inserted in his neck, and the leg. They would remove the leg just above the point of the gangrene.

Again Spencer opened his mind and screamed.

Aaron put a hand to his head as a jolt of pain and fear and panic shot through it and a scream. Someone crying out for help. Spencer.

Floyd had just entered the outskirts of Quantico. The roads were busy and the sidewalk was full of shoppers. He now needed to get a direction from Spencer. He needed to be able to home in on him and find out what the hell was going on.

He stood at the crossroads and opened his mind.

It hit his conscience with such force that he cried out and went down to his knees. Floyd slammed his hands over his ears and looked down at the tarmac at the 'splat splat' of a real bad nosebleed. He groaned and tried to stand but the screaming was still there. Someone was hurting Spence. Someone was going to die for this.

He sneezed and watched clots of dark blood land in the puddle of blood he was kneeling in front of. People walking around him- being avoided. That's good he didn't want to take his mind off the screaming.

Floyd knelt and rocked and tried to concentrate on the direction Spencer's call for help was coming from.

……………………..

They un-strapped Spencer's arms and legs and moved him carefully over onto the bed they would take him down to surgery on. The nurse added something to his IV and they stood waiting.

"Not long now Dr Reid. You will feel a lot more comfortable once we have stabilised your neck and given you a better tube. We are here to care for you. For as long as you are around."

He looked at the nurse with eyes which he couldn't focus with a mind which he couldn't close and let the tears flow.

…………………….

He didn't now how long he had been there for, but the sidewalk was messy now. He was still rocking and thinking and listening, but the screaming was so loud he thought it was going to haemorrhage his brain. He moved his hands from his ears and looked at them. They were covered in a gloopy blood. Again he tried to get up but this time he was stopped by someone putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't move sir. I am a paramedic. I am here to help you."

He turned his head to look at her and he registered the shocked expression on her face.

"It's just a nose bleed m'am." His voice was thick and slow.

"No sir, that is not just a nose bleed. I'm not sure what the hell I would call that." She passed him a towel "Put this to your face sir. I need to see where all that blood is coming from."

"My nose - and my - ears."

"They are bringing over something for you to lay down on sir. I am going to take you to hospital."

"I am fine. Just – just help me. Help me stand."

………………………

Machines bleeping as the surgeon made his first slice.

As one person worked on getting the tube in his neck properly another worked on his leg. They strapped it to a board and cleaned it. They cut out the bad tissue and they sewed him back together. "Minor infection really. He needs to use this crutch or it will happen again." The leg tightly bound and strapped to the bed. Long needles inserted along its length and taped into place. "The meds will be on a pump and will go directly into the leg." The nurse nodded.

He was pushed over onto his side and similar arrangement was done on his spine. Needles inserted and taped down and then straps across his chest holding him down to the board.

A metal contraption was now screwed to his head and strapped across his shoulders and chest.

The final thing they did was to insert the needle into the front of his neck above his lovely new tube. It would freeze his larynx and stop him talking for a while.

They then wheeled him back to his room and stood around with baited breath waiting for him to awaken.

……………………

Floyd was fighting with the medics in the ambulance. They didn't understand the urgency of this situation. He had to find Spence. 'sneeze' and a spray of blood.

"Sir can I ask you your name"

"Flanders." Sneeze "Shit." Sneeze. "I don't feel good." He leaned forwards and let his nose continue to bleed into a dish they had given him.

"Do you remember why you have a dressing on your head sir?"

Swaying slightly. "I was shot."

"In your head?"

"No – in my arse – where do you think?"

Sneeze

"Um. Phone. Do you have a phone?"

She looked at the bloodied hands reaching out for a phone. "I'll dial and hold it. Tell me the number."

Sliding sideways. "I can't breathe properly." He gave the number and lay down on the ambulance bench.

"H hotch – Hotchner. I'm in Quan…" and the fitting started.

The medic held the phone to her ear and explained to the voice on the other end of the phone what the problem is.

……………………..

"All sorted darling." A tender voice in Reid's ear. "Everything went as planned, but they have put your neck in a brace for now rather than more surgery today. You are too under weight to have coped with more. Do you want to see in the mirror love?"

His half open eyes looked over at her. She held the mirror up to so he could see and the relief of not having a tube in his mouth was wonderful. He then noticed the tube snaking directly into his neck and the contraption around his head and his eyes shot open.

"I won't show you your leg. I think we will save that for another time. I really did think Floyd would be here before now but very happy he can't be bothered with you. This is so much more fun than killing him slowly – Sleep well."

And the lights went off and plunged him back into pitch darkness.

………………………………

* * *


	10. Chapter 10 Darling Olivia

Darling Olivia

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He thought his heart would explode through his chest. He could hear it beating even if he couldn't feel it. He could feel nothing. Even his tongue was numb. He tried to call for help – someone please turn the light back on. Someone tell him what is going on. Where are his friends? Where is he? But all he could do was lay there and listen to the machine breathing for him and his heart beating too fast.

The medication made his head foggy. He tried to do his usual and recite in his head all the production dates for the original Star Trek episodes, but there was nothing. The idea of trying to remember it seemed absurd. All he could remember was pain where it shouldn't be and nothingness where there should be something, and out of the corners of his eyes things creeping in the shadows. He tried to contact Floyd but something was blocking him.

These people knew who he was, and the nurse seemed to know Floyd, but he couldn't put the pieces together. Spencer tried to wiggle his fingers and toes again, but there was nothing. He lay letting the silent tears fall. At least no one would see them.

…………………..

Once again Aaron was making his way to the hospital Flanders had been taken to. Morgan had confirmed that Reid was not at the apartment and it didn't look like anyone had been there for a few days. There was dried vomit on the floor and something else which he didn't want to start to think about. Curiously there was also drag marks and more than one set of foot prints and not large. This looked like female feet.

He also was able to confirm that Reid's cell phone was here. There were a lot of missed calls on it. Another slightly worrying thing was that Reid's messenger bag was hanging on a hook with the coats. He never went out without his bag and phone so what ever had happened it had happened suddenly or by force. He called the crime scene people in to have a closer look at the place.

Aaron still in his sling walked down the corridor towards mayhem.

He could hear the shouting and yelling and swearing and he could hear a fainter calming voice. Hotch walked faster to try to see if he could do something before Floyd hurt someone. He walked into the room to see Floyd backed up against the wall and the nurse standing with a hypo in her hand.

"I don't want to have to hurt you missy – but ya's not having my damned blood."

"It won't hurt sir."

"Fuck off!"

Hotch put a hand on the nurses shoulder. "I'll talk to him. Thank you." He flashed his Id at her. She sniffed and walked away.

"We still need a sample."

Floyd tried to push Hotch out of the way to get to the nurse with the offending object but Aaron put his hand on his chest and shook his head.

"You're not getting a sodding 'sample' from me!" Floyd shouted over Hotch's shoulder.

"Calm down. What happened to you?"

Aaron stood back and looked at the blood encrusted shirt and waistcoat.

"Nose bleed. I need to find Spence. Something bad has happened. He's in hospital somewhere."

Aaron opened his phone and called Garcia.

"It's Hotchner. I need you to check out the hospitals local to where Reid lives. I need to now which one he is in."

Snapped the phone shut and looked again at Floyd. "That is more than a nose bleed. You were rushed here by ambulance. This doesn't happen to people with nose bleeds and they told me on the phone that you were bleeding from your ears too. What happened? Did someone attack you?"

Floyd pushed his way by Aaron and looked at his hands. "I was shot. I have a bullet in my head still." Tapping the grubby dressing. "And you are surprised I had a nasty nose bleed? Where the hell is your tech? Why hasn't she found him yet?" He turned to look at Hotch. "They won't tell me anything. Either he's not here or he is dead. I need to know."

Hotch was about to say something when his phone buzzed. "Garcia – I see – ok keep looking."

He looked over at Floyd. "He's not registered at any local hospital."

"Fine." Floyd put his back to the wall and slid to the floor. He wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his head on his knees. "Stay with me Agent Aaron Hotchner. I am going to try something."

Carefully he slid his mind open a crack. All he could hear was a noise like the wailing of banshees. He snapped it shut again and glanced up at Hotch. "I might shout out or scream or piss myself. Just let it happen." Hotch crouched down next to Floyd and watched.

Again he opened up a crack this time trying to ignore the noises and concentrate on something visual.

A couple of deep breaths and his head shot up and snapped back cracking on the wall. Hotch's immediate reaction was to stop him, but if he could find Spence, however odd and creepy this might be, if this was how Floyd collated his thoughts and profiled the situation then he would let him. This man would have made a hell of a profiler if he wasn't insane – and a murderer – oh and a cannibal.

Flanders saw a room. A dark hospital room. He could see someone wired up on the bed and he could see lights flashing and blinking. It was too dark to see exactly who it was but he was guessing that because he had been brought here and as his link was with Reid this was who he was looking at. Another deep breath and his head snapped back again hitting the wall and at the same time blood started flowing from his nose so as his head flew back he sent a spray of fresh ooze across the room. Hotch managed to miss most of it getting only a few speck on his suit sleeve.

Floyd could see someone else now. A nurse. Sharp intake of breath. "No." He put his hands up to his ears and scrunched his eyes up. "NO!"

Aaron was alarmed now. As Floyd's head smacked the wall again he saw a smear of blood. Floyd bared his teeth and let out an ear piercing wail. He watched the nurse touching Spencer. "I will kill her. I will kill the bitch. The son of a bitch whore!" He tore his mind away from what she was doing to Spencer and let his mind leave the room. He needed to know where this hospital was. Aaron saw the expression change from blind fury to a look of puzzlement. He snapped his eyes open and looked up at Hotch.

"That bitch Nurse Olivia has him. It's not a hospital. It's a ware house. Only his room is made up to look right. He is in what looks like ICU."

Aaron nodded and flipped open his phone again. "Garcia. A list please. All the medical equipment sold to independents – well it's a room set up to look like ICU so anything and everything."

………………………..

Olivia had the creepy feeling she was being watched but everyone had gone home for the night. "Just the two of us my dear." She didn't her routine first – fluids in and fluids out. Charted and recorded. She was holding an envelope in her hand. "So Sweetpea, I expect you are wondering what is going on here aren't you?" She looked into his huge hazel eyes. "Well your boyfriend he did something bad. Let me show you." She pulled from the envelope some photographs and held one of them up for Reid to see. "You might not be able to tell but that is my leg. Your boyfriend tried to eat me. He bit lumps out of me and swallowed. He sucked my blood from bites he took from me." She flashed another picture. "And I just know he will come looking for you love and when he does I will be ready. I am at the point now where I don't care who it is I take. You, maybe you, or that cannibal friend of yours or that sweetheart Hotchner. I don't care. But you darling are crippled for life. There is no escaping that one. So even if I don't get him, he will have the image of you and your broken sliced useless body in his mind forever and that will suit me fine."

………………………

"There is only one that fits all the pockets sir. A place which was set up a month ago for a disabled guy. I'll send you over the list and address."

"Thank you Garcia."

"It's strange though sir. It's not a house. I checked the address, an old warehouse."

Floyd was running out of the door trailing blood behind him. Aaron followed.

* * *


	11. Chapter 11 The Rescue

The Rescue

_Friedrich Nietzsche once said: -__The best __weapon__ against an enemy is another enemy._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He ran from the hospital at such speed that he was unable to slow down and wait for the automatic doors to open. Floyd's head made contact with the glass with a crunch, he slid down the door which now whooshed open and he fell forwards leaving a smear of blood up the door. Aaron was there trying to get him to his feet again as hospital staff rushed forwards and patients gasped in shock of what this mad blood drenched man had just done.

"Easy Flanders. I have an address. I need to call in extra hands here."

He pushed him self up onto his knees. "Shit – I wasn't expecting that." He ran a hand over his face.

"Give me the address. I'm not FBI. I don't need to wait for backup." A shaking hand held out now.

Aaron shook his head. "We can make our way over there but I cannot permit you to enter the building. You must wait and let the men do what they are trained to do. I don't want your death on my hands here Flanders. Not today."

He stood and nodded. "Very well. Take me there. I want to be there when they get him – I want him to know I am there."

……………………

She had prepared. Standing where she was at the other side of the room you wouldn't know anything was out of place. Just a slightly disused warehouse with packing crates scattered around. Just to make sure that they knew they were in the correct place she had left noticeable clues for them. The medical supply boxes piled in the corner were ample to get Flanders running in half cocked to his death. She looked down at the floor again and grinned then double checked the switches. Fantastic. Now time to go and play with darling Spencer again. Nothing quite like tormenting this one.

He hadn't moved. Well obviously he hadn't moved. He couldn't move. She walked quickly over to him and stroked his hair. "How are you feeling?" those eyes staring back. "They are on their way I should think. They must've worked out where we are by now. It's all rather exciting. The thing is this, I know how tough your boyfriend is. He just wont die, so although I know he will be first through those doors, and will be the one who gets hurt first, I don't think it will keep him down for long, but Hotchner, well he is already injured. Will he go to help a dying man risking his own life? Knowing obviously who the man is and knowing he shouldn't be running around free – will he stand and watch Flanders bleed out, or will be go for the rescue attempt? I really am not sure. Either way is good. Either way they are both as good as dead as soon as they open the warehouse doors, and what's even more exciting is you will be able to hear the screams of pain! And to make the experience one you will remember to your dying day, well – I will let that be a surprise." She looked down at her watch.

She could see he was trying to say something but his mouth just wouldn't form the words. She leaned forwards and gave him a kiss on his slightly open lips. "Let's just hope we don't get a power cut."

Reid lay on his bed looking at the ceiling. He could hear the sound of the machine breathing for him and he could hear another 'beep' occasionally and he could hear Olivia's heavy fast breaths on his face. Spencer closed his eyes and tried to think of things other than what he suspected was being done to him.

She finally moved away and walked to the other side of his bed. She checked his drip and made a small adjustment. "That should sort you out darling. Now just lay there and hope you die quickly."

Olivia left the room.

……………………

The SUV pulled up outside a large disused warehouse. Floyd's hand was on the door handle and pushing the door open before the engine cut off.

"Wait." Hotch put a hand on his shoulder and felt Floyd jump back from the touch. "We need to be sure this is the right place and I need the perimeter checked out. So calm down and wait."

"It's the right place." One leg out of the car.

"We hope. It could just be somewhere the equipment was used to be stored in." the hand tightened on his shoulder.

Floyd moved his hand and pushed Hotch back off him. "I still have bolts holding that shoulder together. Stop with the pawing me will you." He slid quickly from the vehicle. "See that van?" Hotch nodded "It was parked outside our apartment for about a week." Hotch opened his door. "And you see that warehouse door?"

"Yes. But we are waiting."

"Agent Aaron Hotchner – I am not waiting. Come in with me or stand and watch - either way I don't care but I am going in."

"Five minutes Flanders. That's all I am asking."

Floyd spun and looked at Hotch. Blood was still dripping from his nose and there was a fine spray of blood covering his face. "Do I look like a man who has five minutes to spare Hotchner?!"

He turned and started to walk back towards the warehouse doors. Hotch pulled his gun and walked up next to Floyd. "Fine, we go in together." He looked behind him wishing Morgan and the others would get a move on.

They watched the ground as they walked. Looking out for anything 'wrong'. When they reached the big doors Hotch put his fingertips on the wood. Feeling for anything. Warmth, vibrations, anything which shouldn't be there. Carefully he put his hand on the handle. Nothing unusual. He glanced over at Floyd who was running the back of his hand under his nose and staring at the door. With a sigh Aaron pulled the door open a crack.

Nothing happened. The place didn't blow up. Nothing shot at them. He pulled the door open a bit further. He realised he was holding his breath and when still nothing happened he let it out slowly. Floyd was walking forwards slowly his head cocked on one side and sniffing at the air. He looked over at Hotchner and shook his head. A slight frown on his face.

Too quiet.

Disconcerting.

Unsettling.

Flanders wiped at his nose again and stepped inside the warehouse.

Nothing happened.

No bombs went off.

Nobody shot him.

He cricked his neck and cracked his knuckles.

Hotch came and stood next to him, gun still ready.

"I have a spare gun." A quiet voice. Not wanting to disturb the dust.

A shake of the head, "I don't carry weapons." And now a smirk. "It's illegal."

Stepping forwards.

Dust motes were caught in a shaft of light from a dirty high level window. It seemed almost purposeful that the light shone so directly onto the Medical Supply packing. They both stood for a second or two and looked at it. Neither saying anything, yet each knowing that the other was thinking 'we are in the right place. Reid is here somewhere.'

A small pile of broken bits of cardboard boxes was laying across Floyd's way. He moved his foot forward and gently pushed the debris out of the way. Hotch was looking back the way they had come. No one sneaking up behind them.

Another step.

He felt it firstly just pushing at the bottom of his shoe and then he felt something sliding through the bottom of his foot. Floyd looked down in time to see something shiny burst through the top of his boot.

"Oh shit." He leaned down to get a better look, as Hotch turned almost in slow motion to see what had happened.

"Don't move." Said Aaron helpfully.

"I can't. I am pinned to the floor." He ran his fingers carefully over the thing protruding from his boot. "Bitch. Sodding bitch." Floyd's stomach rumbled.

"Can you pull it back out?" Hotch was loath to bend down and look too carefully. It was a trap. He needed to stay alert.

"It's barbed, so that's a no – not without taking half my foot off with it."

"Keep down, I'm going on."

………………………

Floyd crouched down over the spike. He had a funny feeling that it had been poisoned in some way. He just wasn't sure how yet. His body didn't always react how you would expect. He watched Aaron's back and he listened to the faint humming noise of machinery in the back ground. Very distant, or very low powered.

"Having fun?" A voice behind him.

Without standing he turned his head to make sure it was who he thought it would be.

"Having a ball."

She moved with a slight limp which amused Floyd for the few seconds before the attack started.

…………………….

Hotch had walked across the warehouse floor shining his torch down at the floor. There were a number of spikes and trip wires around which he managed to step over and avoid. Now he was standing in a clean white corridor with two doors leading off it. One had 'private' written on it. The other was slightly ajar and it was from here Hotch could hear the sounds of the occasional 'beep' and the rhythmic sound of medical machinery.

He pushed the door slowly open and saw Reid's big terrified eyes looking back at him.

"It's OK. We are here now." As he walked over to the bed the lights dimmed. They flickered. They went out. The machinery stopped its work and Reid stopped breathing and as Aaron ran forwards he could hear Floyd shouting out in pain and anger and howling like an animal caught in a trap.

……………………..

* * *

**Still supporting the WGA strike.

* * *

**


	12. Chapter 12 Only Animals Bite

Only Animals Bite.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

"You bastard – thought you could get away with that did you?"

Smack across his back.

"You are going to die and your little boyfriend is dying right now."

Smack down on the shoulder.

"As he lays there suffocating he can hear your screams."

Trying to reach around for the morning start mace being thwacked at him.

Smack into the left arm.

Pulling it out with stumble back.

He glanced at his foot and then up at Olivia in time to get the blunt end of the mace smacked into his mouth.

"Only animals bite"

Smack with the blunt end across the side of his head.

Floyd was howling in rage. He was screaming something from deep down in his soul. Something which had been sitting there brooding since time began. He spat blood and pink foam at the nurse as he stood and turned to face her.

"Come on the bitch. Try." He ripped his foot off the spike with a scream of pain and tried to take a step forwards.

Smack across the side of his head. This time with the spikes.

For a second everything went dark and he thought the slut might have got him, but as the light seeped through again and he could feel the pain he knew he had her. A stumble forwards and a hand around her throat. She made a nice little 'gak' sound as his fingers crushed her windpipe and the mace fell from her hands.

"With me whore. You first."

Lights going dim again as his legs stopped working and he dropped with a puzzled look on his face to his knees as his numb fingers lost their grip around her neck.

…………………………..

Aaron looked over at the machinery which had been breathing for Spencer. The lights were off. Everything was silent. He ran to the other side of the bed seeing from the corners of his eye Spencer following him with his. Hotch needed to find either a switch to turn this stuff back on again with or something else to use to get oxygen into Reid's body.

There was nothing. Of course there was nothing. Not even a manual ventilator.

As the sounds outside changed and the screams became different he saw the skin around Reid's lips turning blue.

"Spencer listen to me. I hope you understand what I am saying. I am going to get you out of here. You are going to be ok, but you have to trust me."

Reid blinked as tears trickled down the side of his face.

Aaron looked down at the tube attached to the stoma in Reid's neck. It made him feel sick that these people had mutilated such a beautiful body. Quickly he removed the tube which had been attached to the ventilator.

"Trust me." Aaron whispered, hardly trusting himself as he place a thumb under Reid's jaw and pushed his mouth shut then with the rest of his hand he covered Reid's mouth and nose. He saw Reid blinking madly and more tears forming. "Spence its ok."

He lent forwards and with his mouth formed a seal around the stoma and breathed. A hand on Spencer's bony chest felt the rise, and as he moved back and heard the whisper of air coming back out. Again. He repeated the action. Hoping this would work until the paramedics arrived with Morgan, Rossi, and Prentiss. One hand still forming a seal over Reid's face his other moved now to the restraints holding Reid onto the bed. He quickly unstrapped his left arm.

Breathe.

And then his right.

Breathe.

The screaming had stopped.

A strap across his chest.

Breathe.

Feeling around for the buckles. "It's Ok Spence. The paramedics are on their way."

Breathe.

Sliding the buckles apart and pulling the chest restraint off. Aaron glanced up at the IV and then to Reid's arms in the strange supports and just tugged the IV tubes out. "I'm sorry if that hurt." Aaron felt tears forming behind his eyes. He didn't think Reid was feeling much at all.

Breath.

More strange noises of anger and rage and pain.

Reid's eyes looking towards the door.

"He'll be fine Spence. He is keeping the nurse out of the way for us. I'm going to unstrap your legs now. I'm moving down the bed OK? I will be back. Just hold on there." He took his hand away from Spencer's face and moved quickly to unstrap the weird combination around his legs. One had been strapped to a board. The one with the bad knee. He moved quickly, not liking the sounds coming from out in the warehouse. If the rest of the team didn't hurry it would be too late. He wanted to help Flanders but he couldn't leave Reid.

Aaron looked up at Spencer whose eyes were looking odd and far away. "Spence – stay with me." He ran back up to the bed and formed a seal around his mouth and nose again and –

Breathe.

"Oh god I am so sorry Spencer." And Aaron's tears were falling unchecked.

Breathe.

"I need to sort your other leg out."

He removed his hand and jumped as he heard a god awful ear piecing howl coming from not too far away.

The other leg was just held down just above the ankle. Hotch now moved to the side of the bed and turned Reid carefully onto his side. In his back near the spine and again in the back of his neck there were cannulae. Aaron didn't want to remove them as he had no idea what they had been administering, so he removed the tubes leading to them, but left the cannulae in place. If this was wrong or right he had no idea. But he had to move Spencer out of this room – out of this warehouse, and find proper help.

He turned him back again and placed his hand over Spencer's face again. At least in the short term this seemed to be working.

Breathe.

"Move away from him." A deep voice and deep breaths. Olivia stood in the door way holding a blood drenched morning star mace.

Aaron's hand went for his gun as the nurse stepped forward and raised the mace.

"I said move away. Look Spencer love. Look! Your lover's blood. He put up a damned good fight."

She looked up at Aaron who was holding the gun in her direction. "You need to put that down." Aaron ordered.

She took another step forward. "He needs you to breathe for him Hotchner." A smile. "He's suffocating. A shame he can't feel it but you will. You won't be able to live with yourself. Poor Spence there his last memories - the sound of me smashing his lovers head in and you – you the great profiler standing letting him die when you could so easily breathe for him."

Another step.

Spencer could see the blood dripping from the mace and he could see the hair stuck on the spikes and he could see behind her a shadow on the wall of someone crawling silently.

Aaron took his cue and put his gun down and moved to help Reid. One hand over his face and one protectively on his chest, his mouth sealing the stoma and a breath in Reid's lungs.

"Reid look at me." Aaron didn't want those panicked eyed to give Olivia reason to turn around. "Reid – at me. It's ok. Look at me. Focus." His eyes flicked back at Aaron and Hotch smiled at him. "Good. Now ignore her. Just stay focused on me." A blink.

Breathe.

Aaron was trying not to look at the 'thing' crawling across the floor leaving a smear of blood as he moved. He kept talking to try to keep her attention on him.

"What now Olivia? What do you plan to do now?"

Breathe.

"I plan on killing you both but your first. I want the boy to really suffer and he will." She was smiling. "The longer you keep him alive like that – which believe me wont be long – the better it will be. The more painful his death.

The form on the floor seemed almost to rise out of a lump of broken bones and torn flesh. He was smiling as he stood behind Olivia and wrapped the wire around her throat. He hissed into her ear.

"Whores never learn. Hurt my loves and I hurt you back." A strange popping sound as the wire cut through her neck and sprayed arterial blood around the room. Flanders put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to the floor with him. "Get Spence out of here. I will come out when I am ready."

Aaron grabbed Spencer around his back and under his knees and lifted. The weight distribution was strange because of the contraption around his head, neck and shoulders.

He took him out of the room and down towards the warehouse. He had to keep stopping to fill his lungs and he was aware that if the medics – where the hell were they? – didn't arrive soon it would be too late.

As Hotch stepped out into the light he saw Morgan running towards him. The ambulance was pulling up and the medics running over to help.

Morgan looked down at the battered Reid. "Flanders? Is he in there?"

Aaron didn't look back. "Leave him Derek. Don't go in there."

…………………………

A smear of blood leading to a large stock room cupboard door.

…………………………

* * *


	13. Chapter 13 Rising From the Ashes

Rising from the Ashes.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine. All original characters are.

* * *

He didn't want to hand him over. He looked so afraid and broken Aaron just wanted to keep hold of him, but as his body suddenly arched and stiffened as Reid's body went into a seizure. Hotch lay him down on the tarmac and called out to the medics.

"We need a ventilator. He has a stoma. Quickly!"

In the background almost unheard was a crackling sound and a small bang then thick black smoke started to rise from the back of the warehouse.

Derek stood with Prentiss and watched as suddenly the whole building was engulfed in flames.

Aaron looked across and thought of Flanders still in the building. Another thing he was going to have to explain to Reid – who was now being fixed up with a proper air supply.

Hotch tried to explain what had been going on and as Reid was lifted into the ambulance Hotch stepped up and joined them. "I'm coming with you."

Derek looked back to see Hotch get in the ambulance with Reid and saw the doors close and the ambulance with flashing lights move away and out towards the hospital.

Another explosion. It seemed to take the roof off the building. Any evidence would be lost and Derek was still not totally sure what had happened. It would have to wait now until he got himself over to the hospital to see what the hell had happened to Reid in that place.

He stood for a while watching the flames leap and the thick black smoke. He was beginning to get bits of soot falling on his shoulders and the heat from the fire was too intense. He was about to turn and walk away when he saw movement.

Morgan squinted and looked into the fire. Someone was walking towards him out of the flames. As he got closer Morgan could see whoever it was had a limp. Derek walked towards whoever it was and called for medics again. He stopped when he saw it was Flanders. His silhouette against the flames made the blood he was covered in glisten and shine. He was standing looking at Morgan licking his fingers.

"My god Flanders. What the hell? How?"

Sucking at something behind his fingernails. "Don't be alarmed by all the blood Agent Derek Morgan. It's not all mine." Long leisurely licks across his palms and down towards his inner elbow.

Morgan was about to take him by the arm and direct him away from the flames and towards the running medics but Floyd pulled his arm away. "Don't touch me."

"Sir come with me." A guy in uniform was standing watching the odd scene.

Floyd looked up and frowned. "I'm not ready." Then turning back to Morgan. "I will be at the hospital when I can. Take care of him. Tell him I will be there."

Morgan made to make a grab for him again. "Where the hell do you think you are going?"

"I need time alone to think. Just tell Spencer I will be back when I can."

Morgan could feel angry blood rising in his veins giving him a head rush. "You saw the state he was in! However much I despise you and everything you stand for, Reid seems to be fond of you and will need you there."

Floyd didn't even turn. He pulled his arm away from Morgan and kept walking. "Well right now I am not available. Just pass on the message will you."

"NO!" Morgan running up behind Floyd. "You tell him. You explain to him how it's your fault he is there almost dead and paralyzed. You explain to him how your temper has caused this. I don't feel it's my place do you?"

"He's a big boy Derek. He will understand."

Morgan stood and watched Flanders walk away from him. Why he would put himself in such danger for Reid and then not even bother to check up on him was a puzzle for Derek. "Damn you Flanders!" He shouted at the retreating back.

…………………..

At the hospital they had a million questions to ask Hotch. Did he know what had been injected into Reid's spine? "No."

Hotch stood next to the bed not knowing what to do. They had him back on a ventilator and had cleared his air ways sucking out the muck which had been collecting and then they did a very careful inspection of his back and neck.

Aaron was pacing outside in the corridor when Derek arrived. He stood with Hotch for a while looking at the staff pulling Reid around. He could see the scared look in his eyes and the way he wasn't responding to stimuli.

"Whoever it was cleaned his leg up for him." Aaron muttered to no one.

"I saw Flanders."

Hotch tore his eyes away from Reid and looked at Derek. "You saw him? Where? I told you not to go in the building."

"The whole place exploded."

"Flanders was still in there." He looked back at Reid laying being manipulated by the doctors.

"He walked out. He just damned well walked out of the place covered in blood." Also looking at Reid.

"Where is he now?"

Morgan shrugged. "I have no idea. He walked off. Told me to tell Reid he would be back when he could."

The doctor left the room and looked over at the two men. "I need to talk to Aaron Hotchner. In private." Hotch gave a small nod.

"Morgan stay with him. Talk to him." Derek nodded.

"As soon as I can get in the room Hotch." He looked back at the staff prodding and bending Spencer.

…………………….

In the doctors office Hotch was invited to sit down.

"Straight to the point here Agent Hotchner. I don't know exactly what damage had been done to Dr Reid. There doesn't seem to be any neck trauma so we are going to remove the brace."

"Why did they put the brace on him then?" Though he thought he knew.

"Psychological. To make him think he had a damaged neck. The problem we are seeing though is he had the cannulae in his spine and neck and obviously he was being given some powerful paralyzing drug. We have sent bloods down to try to work out what it was, but we don't know if any permanent nerve damage has been done. Recovery for Dr Reid is going to be slow and very painful as the poisons make their way out of his system."

"The stoma?"

"Probably will have to stay. At least for now. Until we know if he gets any movement back. The chances are somewhat higher than if the neck had been broken, so in that respect he is fortunate. It might not look like it right now Agent Hotchner, but Dr Reid is very lucky. Very lucky to be alive."

Hotch could feel angry tears welling up behind his eyes. "Thank you. You will of course keep me informed."

"Certainly, for now he will need his family and friends. He is still not able to communicate, and small puncture wounds on his neck are making me think he has been artificially prevented from using speech. It will I feel recover."

Aaron stood and thanked the doctor and walked back to where Derek was still standing. "They took him for an MRI. Is he going to be alright? What did they say?"

"That they don't know. That we just have to wait and see. They need to keep him on the ventilator. Why isn't Floyd here? He will need him."

"Yeah well he will learn to do without Hotch. It's his fault this happened. What ever concessions you have decided to give him, it doesn't change the fact he is a monster who will attack and hurt Reid at the flip of a coin. He needs to be locked away from society and never be seen again. This is one time I believe in the death penalty and it hurts to have to say that."

"I'm going to get a coffee while we wait. Coming?" The two men walked away from the empty room.

………………..

He lay on his back inside the machine which was thumping and banging around his ears. They tried to reassure him. They said his neck was not broken. They said he still had both legs, they didn't tell him he was going to recover. He couldn't recover. Not from this. This fear was tattooed on his soul now. He let out a soft whimpering sound just before his eyes rolled back and the fitting started again.

………………….

He lay on his back in a small wooded area.

He knew it was his fault. Reid was suffering because of his temper, because of his hunger and thirst. Something he found hard to control. It was him. He was just a skin around these needs and lusts. How could he control it? How can they expect him to control such a monster? He looked at his blood smeared hands and licked his lips. He put his finger tips on his tongue and then began to dig behind his nails with sharp white teeth.

This was such a deep rooted passion that he couldn't control it. Without Spencer he was just the monster. Spencer was the thing that stopped him. He would never hurt Spencer. Never.

Well except for those few times – but they didn't count.

OK they counted a bit, but he still needed Spence and he knew Spence needed him. Right now, right this second though, he had to lay here and heal.

…………………………..

* * *


	14. Chapter 14 The Sweet Taste of Coffee

The Sweet Taste of Coffee

_It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment. What creates despair is the imagination, which pretends there is a future: -__André Dubus_

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

Today they cranked up the top of his bed so he had the illusion he was sitting. So he looked almost normal, except for the strap across his chest holding him in place – stopping his useless body from just sliding down the bed. They had tried initially without the strap but he would just slide down, or to the side, and he would watch as the room moved and not be able to do anything about it.

They had folded his useless hands across his lap. He looked down at them. Strapped almost the same way Olivia had 'To assist in stopping the muscles and tendons pulling.' They had put things on his feet and ankles too.

Slowly and with great care he ran his tongue over his dry lips. He wanted Aaron to bring him a lip salve, but he still hadn't managed to get his voice back, and he wasn't expecting to now. He could make soft whimpering sounds, and he could make that sad keening noise of distress, but that was all.

Spencer's neck and head were held now in a soft support again just so his head didn't fall to one side and god forbid; make him look like a cripple.

"Spencer?" A voice at his elbow and a kind hand stroking his hair. The auxiliary nurse Mia pulled something from her pocket. "I noticed how dry your lips were. I hope you don't mind this. I don't want it to seem intrusive." She held it up for him to see and he would have hugged her and said thank you, but all he could do was blink. She wiped the salve gently over his lips and put the pot next to his bed. "I will write a note to remind people to use it." She smiled at him. "I hope you understand me." He blinked at her again and slowly moved his tongue over his lips again. "Good. My shift is over soon, so I thought I would come in and talk to you again. Would you like me to read to you? I will bring a book with me." She took the hairbrush and gently brushed his hair for about five minutes. "I'll see you later then. Call it a date."

She walked over to the television on the wall and changed its angle so he would be able to see it. "Time for the soaps. I'll come back and check in a few." And she was gone.

Aaron wasn't going to visit today. He was away somewhere doing things with 'the team'. The team needed him. The team. The team he used to be part of and now was abandoned in some hospital somewhere with a machine breathing for him, and fluids in fluids out. A small tear ran down the side of his face. Floyd hadn't been in. No one had mentioned him, but he knew. He could still hear the screams and he could see the blood spraying and he knew Aaron made him look at him so he wouldn't see Floyd die. Another tear.

Mia was back again. How long had it been? He hadn't been looking at the television it was just a sound and moving pictures, his mind wouldn't permit him to actually follow the story.

A cold cloth wiped his face and more balm was put on his lips. She pulled a chair over but didn't sit down yet. "I know you can't eat, so I have this." She held up a small dish divided into different sections. "Its tastes. I can put a taste on your bottom lip and you can have a taste in your mouth other than hospital toothpaste. Sound good to you?" A blink and his mouth open a tiny bit in anticipation. "Coffee." She said. And with a cotton bud she dipped it in the tastes and wiped it gently along Spencer's bottom lip.

Coffee. How long since he had tasted that sweet beverage? He had no idea how long he hand been here. He savoured it. Tasted it slowly, soaking up the small sample and taking it back into his mouth. It made him make that little whimpering sound and it made his fingers twitch. Mia watched with a frown. "Spencer, can you do that again?"

She put more of the taste on his lip and he hungrily sucked his lip in and took the taste. It sent a tingle down his spine and made his toes curl in pleasure. "Oh my god Spencer!" He looked up at her and a small frown passed over his face. "It's alright. You moved your fingers and toes. Oh god!" She slammed the tastes down on the side and ran from the room. He wanted more. He needed that taste again, but she was gone. He needed to call her back but the only sound he could make was the weird wailing cry.

…………………

He was living deep in the forest. No one ever came here. No one to disturb him and no one getting in his way. He went from day to day living off the small animals which he snatched up off the forest floor. The first few weeks he lusted after the blood from these creatures like a sick vampire. He bit into their small bodies and sucked the fluids from them.

He would lay for hour upon hour willing his body to mend. Almost feeling the broken bones knitting back together again. He could feel the plates and bolts in his shoulder, and he could still feel pain.

Floyd sat and inspected his foot. He wiggled his toes and lay back looking up at the clouds. He needed to know that his foot would heal properly. It was a big deal for Floyd. He needed to be able to walk LONG distances but he was still healing.

Then something flashed through his mind. Something he hadn't expected. He looked down at his hands and smiled. "It's time."

………………..

Mia came rushing back in with a grin on her face. She stood by the bed and pickup Spencer's limp hand and squeezed it. "The doctor will be here soon." And as the words left her lips a man walked into Spencer's room. Spencer's home. The only place he had been aware of for weeks. She dipped the cotton wool bud in the tastes again and showed it to Spencer. She wiped it over his lip and he sucked the taste in greedily. This time she felt fingers tighten on his and saw again his toes curl.

The doctor smiled at Spencer. "Well it looks like we have finally found that thing to get you going again Dr Reid. Some good news to tell your friends. This is wonderful. Thank you Mia." The doctor turned and left the room.

Mia squeezed his hand again, and squealed in delight when her hand was squeezed back. "You want more coffee Spencer?" A whimpering sound and a squeeze of the hand. "Oh lord Spencer! If I didn't know you had a boyfriend somewhere I would kiss you!" Now a sound which could almost pass as a laugh mixed with tears running down his cheeks.

……………….

It had been a nasty case. They were all nasty cases but child abduction and murder was always the worse. Hotch sat alone in his room and poured a small drink into a tumbler then lay back on his bed. He was sharing a room with Rossi, but today he had gone down to the bar with Morgan. Dave couldn't get his head around why Hotch was feeling so depressed. He couldn't understand how much he missed Spencer, and how much he needed to be with him. He was waiting for the time he would be permitted to take him home to care for him, like you would a new baby and it hurt so much that Hotch made a quick run to the bathroom and was sick down the toilet. He knelt in front of the toilet bowl and heaved and vomited until there was nothing left and then carried on bringing up bile and other strange liquids until finally his body let him have a rest.

His ribs hurt and his throat was burning. His hair was wet and his face sticky with sweat.

Aaron sat on the bathroom floor letting his tears fall for Spencer and relishing in the pain he felt. At least he could feel something.

The hammering at the door brought Aaron back from that dark place he had been slipping into. He pulled him self up off the floor still shaking and quickly rinsed his mouth out. He flushed the toilet as the hammering continued. "I'm on my way. Hang on." He called out in a slightly croaking wobbly voice. "Who is it?"

"Just open the fucking door Agent Aaron Hotchner."

…………………………..

* * *


	15. Chapter 15 Kill or Cure

Kill or Cure

_Rock a bye baby on the tree top,  
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,  
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall,  
And down will come baby, cradle and all. _

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

As Hotch opened the door Flanders flew into the room like a mad creature from hell.

"He's waking. I can feel it. We need to go back."

Floyd was picking up Hotch's jacket and throwing it at him.

"What are you doing here, and what are you talking about?"

Floyd stood and scratched his head. "I am here to fetch you. They won't let me talk to him."

Throwing shoes now. Not at Hotch, but at the door."

"I am working a case Flanders, I can't just drop everything because you have a funny feeling about something. How did you know where to find me?"

"I'm not going to beg you." Walking in a tight circle as Hotch stood and watched. "Phone them! Phone the hospital. You have told them to give me no information. They won't talk to me."

Aaron kept an eye on Flanders and went to get his phone from the night stand. "I haven't told them not to talk to you." Pressing speed-dial 8.

"Someone has." Moving close to Aaron and looking at the phone. "Put it on speaker. I need to know."

A frown at Flanders. "This is Agent Hotchner. I am calling to see if there is a change in the condition of Dr Reid – when did this happen?" a pause. "And you didn't think to call me because?" Listening. "I see. I will be there as soon as I can. Thank you."

He looked at Flanders. His filth encrusted clothes the black behind his fingernails and dirt smeared on his face. "You can't come looking like that."

"What did they say?" Walking to the bathroom and turning on the hot tap.

"That he is regaining some sensation to his limbs. Hands and feet. That's all and sometimes it happens when the nerves start to die. It causes spasms."

"So he is either dying or getting better? They can't tell you more than that?" Washing hands and splashing his face with water.

"They can't tell me more than that. We need to go and see him either way."

"I thought you were 'working a case'?"

Hotch looked over at the grime Flanders was smearing over the white hotel towels. "Yes. I will go talk to Rossi and Morgan. You – sit on the bed and do whatever the hell it is you do. Wait there for me."

Shoes and jacket back on Aaron left quickly while Floyd sat on the bed and drank what was in the tumbler.

He lay back with his hands behind his head. "Sweet. A bed."

And he opened his mind a crack.

…………………….

He walked into Spencer's room and looked around. He could see the man's eyes following him as he walked to the other side of the bed and inspected the IV. The man in the white coat then walked over to the table by the side of the bed.

"How are you feeling Spencer? A lot better than my sister I would think." He picked up the lip balm. It was a small tin with a tiger on the lid. "Tiger Balm – this is expensive stuff Spence. Must have set someone back the price of a coffee."

Reid's eyes followed the man. He looked familiar but he couldn't work out where from. He popped the lid off the balm and took a small bottle out of his pocket. The small green bottle had a lid with a dropper attached. He used the dropper to add a few drops to the balm. He then picked up a cotton wool bud and wiped it around inside the small tin until all of the foreign substance had been absorbed. Then the lid went back on.

"Not talking to me then Spencer? Not that I wanted a little chit chat with you. It would have been nice for your lover to have been here though." He looked down at the round container with the tastes in it. "That nice Mia been giving you something good to taste? She's a catch that one. Shame you are a twisted pervert freak." He picked up the container and opened the lid. A couple of drops were added to the coffee taste and the lid replaced. He leaned over Reid and looked into this eyes. "Night, night – I really hope this hurts."

The small bottle replaced in his pocket and he was gone.

He tried to scream. He tried to do something to call the attention of someone but all that happened was a mournful moan which was answered by a nurse in a dark blue uniform.

"What's all the noise for in here?"

His fingers twitched.

"Hush now, you don't need to make such a silly noise."

His eyes were huge and wet.

She picked up the damp sponge and wiped it over his face – getting rid of the tears and sweat forming on his brow. The nurse looked down at the man who had been laying for weeks unmoving and she smiled at him. "I know just the thing to settle you down – now try not to cry out sweaty, I won't be long." He watched her starched dark blue ass leave the room again, and once again tried to call for help, but his brain and vocal cords were having non of it. She had been gone about ten minutes. When she got back she tightened her lips and frowned. "This noise Spencer, it has got to stop. You will wake the other patients up, and I know you don't want to have that on your conscience – not a nice boy like you."

She got a chair and stood it next to his bed and then put a cardboard box on the bed next to his feet. She stood on the chair and pulled something out of the box. A mobile. It had butterflies hanging from it in varying colours and hues. She hooked the little ring at the top to a hook hanging down from the ceiling and then pulled a cord which was hanging down.

Spencer watched as it played a tune he might once have remembered from his nursery and the butterflies gently went around.

She climbed back down from the chair and put it back by the wall and then put the box on the floor next to it. She stood and watched Spencer's face watching the mobile. The strange noises had stopped. She had seen this so many times with brain damaged children. The mobile often soothed them and took their minds off whatever it was distressing them.

She aspirated him which did actually make him whine a bit again for a short while. "It must hurt. Poor soul." she whispered and then she lowered the bed so he was laying down with his head propped on the pillow. She watched his fingers twitch again, but that meant nothing. She had seen false hope like that so many times doing this job.

She wiped around Spencer's gums with a wet cotton bud and then opened up the balm.

His eyes went huge again and once again he was making strange keening sounds. "Hush now. You need to be thinking of sleeping." And she wiped the balm across his lips.

The nurse dimmed the lights, but it said clearly on the switch not to put him in darkness so it was just slightly dimmed.

He watched the door close and then watched the mobile going around and he wanted to call out for help again.

Floyd.

Please Floyd where are you?

………………………

He was expecting static. That was all he had been managing lately. Floyd wasn't sure if it was damage which had been done to him or to Spence, but it was frustrating. He figured the problem was with Spence as he didn't have a problem tracking down Hotchner. He better be quick. Floyd could feel his foot throbbing and it was the one thing he was having a problem with healing. It just didn't want to. But then walked half way across the country on a broken foot was maybe not wise. He had actually been glad when he finally gave up the tough man image and got the greyhound for the last part of the journey. Now to try to contact Spence again.

A tiny crack.

A small opening.

Didn't want to alarm Spence.

It was Floyd though who let out the shout of shock. It came so hard and fast that he thought for one horrible moment he was going to black out. A scream of terror and pain.

Floyd sat up as he got a gusher of a nose bleed and a scream in his head so loud he was sure the people in the next room would have heard it.

_Babes!_

_I'm on my way._

But he wasn't. Where the hell was Aaron? Got to his feet just letting the blood drip. No point in trying to stop this. He left the room leaving a fine blood trail behind him down to the bar to get Aaron.

………………………

* * *


	16. Chapter 16 Nightmares

Nightmares

_Juliet__: And when I shall die, take him and cut him up in little stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will fall in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun._

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He lay with his eyes open staring up at the mobile – his mouth slightly open and his eyes pouring water.

In the early hours of the morning an orderly came in to check up. "You need to sleep."

Reid's eyes flicked in his direction and he blinked slowly.

"I have something for you. A gift. A treasure. I know you will love it." He took a tiny bottle from his pocket. "Eye drops." He leaned over and put his face close up to Reid's. "A real shame you can't scream. You just make those stupid cripple boy noises don't you?" He stood up and pulled the cord on the mobile. "Hush a bye baby. How apt. How completely wonderful."

He placed the eye drops next to the tiger balm and the slipped under it a small printed note 'Use four times daily'.

The orderly walked to the door and pulled the note 'do not turn off the lights' off the wall and then flipped the switch plunging Reid into a nightmare. The door which was always left open so the staff could hear if he called out was now closed tightly shut.

…………………….

Floyd and Hotch walked quickly out to the SUV. Hotch pointed the key and unlocked with a 'b'beep' and Floyd was about to grab the passenger door handle.

"I'm coming. Let me drive." Morgan was running out behind them.

Floyd looked at Morgan then back at Hotch then back at Morgan again and sighed. "I'll take the back then. Just move it. We are three hours away."

"I will be there in two. Get in."

Floyd curled up on the back seat. Hotch was worried about him. Not only was his nose continuing to poor blood but he was making odd noises and rocking.

"Flanders what's going on?"

He just got a moan in reply.

……………………….

The ventilator turned off. His eyes flicked to the side of the room where the machine was and the lights were off. He needed to tell someone. He opened his mouth to scream for help but nothing came out.

Reid moved his hands slowly and laboriously up to his stoma and grabbed the tube. He needed to breathe. He was going to die and he couldn't call for help in the dark with things moving in the shadow. His legs jerked and his back arched as he pulled at the tube which in his mind was stopping the air getting to his lungs. He made odd noises at the back of his throat and his feet started kicking the metal foot rail.

Things started to feel far away and foggy as he continued to pull and kick and arch his back at an impossible angle.

Someone was shouting his name.

"Dr Reid – You are having a nightmare." And hands pulling his away from his tube and checking it and needles being jabbed into his thigh as his muscles continued to jerk and the kicking gradually slowed down and his eyes began to focus on a face near to his. "That's better. Someone turned your light off. You had a bad dream. You are OK." Comforting hands stroking his hair and now he could see the ventilator was working and he could sense his chest moving again and they tucked his hands back under the covers.

He had bitten his bottom lip at some point and there was a little dribble of blood. A nurse carefully wiped it away and picked up the balm and a cotton bud. Reid wanted to shout at her to stop but his eyes just went big and watery.

"Do your eyes hurt too love?" she asked kindly, and he tried so hard to shake his head or swipe the things out of her hand and all he could do was stare at her.

The balm went on first.

The burning pain was indescribable. It would have been bad without the cut, but this was an all new level of pain. She noted his eyes watering and looked at the eye drops again.

"Just one drop in each eye should do the job."

He squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as he could and finally his brain let him do something and he started thrashing his head around again.

"What on earth is wrong with him tonight?" An orderly.

"Says on his notes he's been playing up all day. Come on Spencer, give us a break here. What's all the fuss about?" She pulled the cord on the mobile which for the second she needed distracted him and he opened his eyes.

He was instantly blinded – it felt like his eyes were boiling. His hands flew up out from under the covers and his nails dug at his eyes. Again Spencer was kicking and arching his back and again they jabbed needles in him to calm him down but this time they strapped his arms to the side rail on his bed, and strapped his feet to the bottom rail.

"Now calm down Dr Reid. You are being very silly."

He lay still now making the horrible keening sound with his eyes squished shut and the machine making its gentle breathing sounds.

"Well at least we know he can move his arms." And the nurse laughed. "Damn him – why can't they just die quietly. I hate it when the brains start to die on them like this. Almost looks like they are getting better."

…………………………..

"We are here." Derek screeched to a stop in front of the main doors and the three of them stumbled out. Aaron looked like he hadn't slept in a week, Derek looked like he was ready to kill someone and Floyd looked like road kill.

They made their way through the doors and to the main reception.

"Oh you need A and E." The receptionist looked at Floyd.

"I need Dr Reid. Where is he? Show the bitch your badges boys – come on put the whore in her place."

Hotch pulled out his badge and Morgan pulled Floyd away. "Calm down. Or I will arrest your sorry ass."

Lucille – as he name badge announced – looked at the computer screen and muttered. "Not meant to have visitors at this hour you know. Not up on that ward."

"I'm not a visitor, I am an FBI agent and I don't need your permission to see one of my agents."

She tutted and wrote the floor and room numbers down. "They won't like it - especially not him."

"Like I give a….." Morgan dragged him to the elevators. "Get your dirty hands off me!" Then he looked over at Hotch. "I have been thinking. Those bones, did you ever get anyone?"

Hotch pushed the elevator button. "No – why?"

"I think he is a member of Hitler Youth or something."

Morgan sniffed. "And how would you figure that?"

"All the bones are from Caucasians. From what I saw and felt and sensed, no Asians or blacks or mixed race."

Morgan frowned and stepped into the lift. "Surely if he was eating blond blue eye people he would not be Hitler Youth."

"Complete reverse Morgan. A lot of people will eat someone else because they then become a part of them. That's what it looked like to me. Age and gender was not important to this person, and nor was their medical condition. It was purely appearance. So you are looking for someone in the twenty mile radius of those skulls. The skull being the focal point of a kill and you are looking for someone who is – or who wants to be pure. I would judge by the amount of kills there were that this person doesn't quite fit the bill. May he is cross race. Don't know if that's any help." Hotch and Morgan nodded as the lift pinged and the doors slid open.

Morgan and Hotch both wanted to talk to the staff on duty first, Floyd went straight down to the room.

…………………………

Spencer heard someone come into the room and his muscles started to tense and twitch in preparation of pain.

"Babes."

A voice he knew. He opened his bloodshot swollen eyes and tried to look, but his vision was still too blurry.

"Why they tied you to the bed?" And Spencer could feel Floyd un-strapping him. "What he hell has been going on here?" he looked up and saw the butterfly mobile and he frowned. "What the hell?" He reached up and ripped it down. "They treating you like a fucking kid. I will kill them. Who did this?" He threw it across the room. "What's wrong with your mouth? Your beautiful lips look sore babes." He put a hand either side of Spencer's face and bent over and kissed him lightly on the mouth.

Hotch and Morgan heard the shout.

"What in sods name have you got on your mouth?!"

He grabbed the lip balm and slathered a load over his mouth. And howled in pain.

Hotch and Morgan ran into the room "What's going on?"

"This! It's spiked with something.

They wiped creams over Spencer's mouth and eyes and they gave something to Floyd for his mouth and took the bottles and lotions to be tested at the lab.

When they had gone and Morgan and Hotch said what they needed. They left Floyd alone with Reid and went to find a doctor.

He pushed down one of the side rails and climbed up on the bed next to Spencer and lay down. "Sorry if I stink a bit." And he carefully rolled Reid onto his side so his back was to him. Floyd wrapped his arms tightly around him and nuzzled the back of his neck "I missed you so damned much." He got no reply except for Spencer pushing back against Floyd. Carefully with his feet he pushed Reid's legs into a better position and curled up around him. "Someone gonna get you Babes, they gonna have to go through me first."

Spencer could feel the comforting warm breath on the back of his neck and the tightness of the leg wrapped around his in the way Floyd liked. Holding him in place with his hands resting on his chest and he thought.

If I am going to die, let it be tonight.

_You're not going to die Babes._

_Sleep._

……………………………

* * *


	17. Chapter 17 Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love

_People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive. It is as though they were travelling abroad: - Marcel Proust._

**A/N: Wonderful spellchecker wanted me to change 'Proust' to 'Sprouts' Not quite the same though is it ?…so I left it as is.**

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine: Floyd is.

* * *

Aaron and Derek left the two of them alone and went to find the duty doctor. They wanted to know exactly what had been going on and what Reid's condition was.

They were taken into a small side room and asked to sit.

"I am Dr Rose. What is it you need to know?"

Derek was standing pacing, Aaron sat as asked. "I need to know why I wasn't told of the change in Dr Reid's condition and exactly what does this mean, what is the diagnosis since he has started moving? Can we remove the ventilation and see if he can breathe on his own?"

"Slow down – Dr Reid is still very ill. We don't know the final out come but full recovery becomes less likely as the days pass. The movement in his limbs I am afraid may be deceptive. He is definitely reacting to stimuli – well to pain and comfort, but still in a very basic form. There does seem to be quite severe brain damage. We just need to let it take its course day by day and hope for the best." Morgan had stopped pacing now and was just standing looking at the doctor.

"As for the ventilation, we could try to see if he can breathe on his own. It will be quite traumatic for him though and I don't feel he is strong enough to cope with that trauma just yet."

"Just do it. Get that thing out of his damned neck." Morgan snapped at the doctor.

"It's easy enough to check. We can remove the tube and put a cap on the stoma. I will look into trying that later."

Hotch nodded. "So why is he suddenly able to move? And why can he not talk?"

The doctor sighed. "As I said, there is brain damage. As parts of the brain die off the body will react to it. I feel that is all that is happening. We will need to do more MRI scans to be sure of this."

"I see." Aaron stood up. "If you will excuse me. I need the men's room." Aaron walked quickly from the room leaving Derek and the doctor together.

…………………

He burst in through the men's room door and threw up in the toilet. Again his stomach twisting and heaving at the thought of what was happening to the man with the genius brain. He knelt on the floor with his hands on the cubical walls and silently cried for the young agent he had grown to love so much, and had gotten so close to. The idea that he wouldn't hear that voice again was tearing him apart. He thought back to the times Spencer had been spouting off something irrelevant and had been told to be quiet. He thought of that beautiful face and funny giggle and was so deep in these thoughts that he didn't hear someone walk into the men's room.

"You interfering bastard."

And something cracked Aaron around the back of the head – it hit so hard that Aarons face smacked into the porcelain of the toilet bowl rim.

The restricted space made it difficult for Hotch to manoeuvre and as the hand came down on the back of his head and pushed him down into the water Aaron's only defence was to try to kick backwards – but his head was foggy from the hit around the head and his ability to think straight was gone. His natural defences kicked in now as the fight or flight mode turned to fight – he was now off balance and as his face became submerged into the blue toilet water he closed his eyes tightly and put his hands on the rim of the bowl trying to pull his head back out of the water. He wanted to shout out to alert someone but his mouth was under the toxic water. Suddenly he was being pulled out again. He opened his mouth to shout as the UnSub started to talk to him. Hotch managed one breath and his head was pushed down again.

"You will not get in the way. You will stop poking your nose around. You will leave the games alone." Pulled his head out of the water. "Don't know if you heard me." Head back in the water. "Son of a bitch FBI bastard you won't spoil this for us"

The man could feel Hotch's struggles getting weaker. He could hear the spluttering and choking sounds and it excited him. He loved to feel his target writhe under his strong hands. Especially a big strong guy like this, and this was going to be his first FBI kill, because really you can't count the cripple down the corridor curled up with who this was really all about.

"This is because I can't seem to kill that Flanders bastard, and killing your chum Reid has been such a long drawn out pleasure. Giving me many nights of fanciful dreams." He shook Hotch and got no response. "This kill will keep me going for a few days too and then I am afraid back to destroying your little friend.

He pulled him out of the water and let him drop to the floor. "Don't know if you can feel this FBI man, but this is for my sister." And the kicks to the face and groin started. The fact that he didn't moan or move or do much but lay there was a disappointment, but you can't have everything.

As an orderly he had access to the janitors walk through cupboard. He opened the door and was in the small space grinning. There was another door leading out of the small room. He locked the one he had just come through and then left via the other with a box of tissues in his hands and wandered off down the corridor away from everyone and towards the small area where you could get something to eat. Killing always made him feel hungry. His stomach rumbled in agreement.

…………………

He sat and sipped coffee and ate a donut and read the evening post and listened to the news showing on the small television screen. With the other part of his consciousness he heard the calls for help. He heard the big black guy shouting for a doctor. He could hear them shouting for the resus cart and he could hear the panic in the voices. Jolly good – alive or dead didn't matter really. He had shown him and will show him again if needs be.

……………….

Morgan went to find Hotch when he hadn't re- appeared after ten minutes. He wasn't expecting to see his boss laying what appeared to be dead on the men's room floor. He ran and checked a pulse – nothing.

"Someone help me!" Morgan called out. "He's not breathing, I cant find a pulse."

They came running pushing the big FBI guy out of the way so they could get to the man laying bleeding from head and face wounds. He was wet. Very wet. They called for the resus cart and they turned Hotch over onto his back pulling open his shirt and making compressions on his chest until the cart arrived. Morgan stood back and watched. How the hell can this happen?

He did a quick profile of the room. Two doors in or out. With tissue over his hand he checked the second door. Locked. He looked up at the camera facing towards the wash basins. There seemed to be something covering the lens. He made note to check it when he could reach it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard them shouting 'clear' and saw the paddles touch Hotch and saw his back arch and saw him begin to cough and splutter. It felt like it was all coming from very far away. He needed to check on Reid. He needed to stay here. He needed to catch whoever did this. Morgan watched them put Hotch on a trolley and rush him away. He was awake. He was in pain. He will be fine. Everyone will be fine. This is going to all work out good. Morgan kept having to tell himself that.

He made a call to CSU and then he made a call to Garcia.

"Hey Derek. I'm at home – did you need me to do some digging for you?"

"No babe, I just needed to hear a friendly voice."

And he told her what was going on.

…………………..

He felt Spencer fall asleep and he took the chance to run his hands over him and check him out.

It felt good.

It felt exciting.

It felt almost wrong.

Just wrong enough.

And Spencer had been unwell.

Is unwell.

Is maybe going to never recover.

Might not have a memory of this in the morning.

A little bit of comforting wouldn't hurt.

He pulled a tube of something out of his pocket.

"You don't mind do you Spence?"

………………………

* * *


	18. Chapter 18 View from the Window

View from the Window.

_It is not so much for its beauty that the __forest__ makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit__: - __Robert Louis Stevenson _

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

Floyd lay awake all night as was normal and breathed in the scent of Spencer. He felt him twitch and heard soft moans. Carefully he un-strapped the bindings he had around his hands and arms and lay in the dim light rubbing his hands and fingers trying to get life back into them.

He kissed and licked at the back of his neck and was rewarded by the automatic response he had come to love so much about Spence. The need to be held and kept safe and for some unknown reason – well ok …

Floyd sat up and looked down at the pale form laying on the bed – not unknown – not entirely.

OK if you wanted to be picky - yes he had beaten and drugged and abused him into this, but he was free to walk away – well no not right now he wasn't, but ordinarily he would be free to walk away. Except when he did – well – he never got far.

He got down off the bed and walked to the window. It was dark. He could see the tops of the buildings against the dark blue of the sky but beyond there, just out of view, hidden by the concrete and brick was the forest and it was calling him. He could almost smell the leaves under his feet and the clear air blowing through his hair. Well ok not clear air – because he would be smoking, but the imagery was clear air and damp leaves. He liked that image. Big ancient trees which had been there for centuries. Watching them change and bend and move with the times. The animals; Screaming in the traps, and the fish flapping their last breaths on the river bank. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead on the cold glass. Floyd wanted to go home and he wanted to take Spence. In more ways than one. He looked over at the almost still form. Twitching his toes and occasionally rocking his head. He would get better. Floyd new this. He could feel it. Deep down inside that muddled mind Spencer was still there.

"We will go for a hike Spence. There are some good trails up there and down to the river. I will show you how to fish with your hands. You'll love it. We can camp under the stars, and smoke weed and sniff fancy stuff – ok no drugs – drink – we can get off our faces and skinny dip in the pools. I know of a lovely waterfall – it'll give you goose-bumps." He turned and looked back. "Wake up Spence. I know I like it when you don't answer back but this has gone too far the other way."

He walked back to the bed carefully rolled Spencer onto his back. He still didn't wake. He gently touched the tube going into is neck. "I'm going to see what happened to Laurel and Hardy. I won't be long."

He slid silently from the room leaving the door open. A last look back and he was walking quickly to the nurses' station.

People didn't seem so willing to give Floyd information as they had Hotch and Morgan. He had no badge or gun, and he was blood splattered and smelly. Eventually he managed to get someone to find out where they were and get a call through to Morgan who then explained what had happened.

"Don't leave Reid on his own."

Floyd looked towards where Reid's room was. "I just left him."

"Go back and stay with him. I will come down to you soon."

Floyd looked again back towards where Reid's room was. "Urh." A pause. "I have to go." The phone dropped from his fingers and bounced as it hit the floor. He took a couple of steps walking and then broke into a run. The door was shut. He pushed. It didn't move. He pushed harder. Something had been jammed behind the door. With a yelp he threw himself at the door and he stumbled inward as the chair which had been stuffed under the door handle in this piss pot good for nothing dump of a hospital flew back out of the way.

……………………..

Morgan stood looking down at Aaron. Thank god he was going to be alright. He had something across his eyes to keep out the light. The chemical in the water had burnt the skin around his eyes and caused 'temporary' damage to his vision. They had put in eye drops and applied lotions to the burns on his face. Slight chemical burns, nothing permanent. Derek sighed. This sort of trouble only ever seemed to happen when Flanders was around. There was something about him that attracted every bad ass dude within howling distance.

He put a hand on Hotch's shoulder. "You're gonna be OK Hotch. It's all going to be ok. I am going to pop down and check on Reid and then I will be back."

Hotch nodded. His throat burning still from the drowning in chemically enhanced water.

"I won't be long." There was a security guard on the door. "No one in or out. No one unless it's his doctor or the nurse over there. Understand?"

"Understood."

Morgan took the stairs to fourth floor. Just one flight down to check on Reid.

…………………….

"Don't you touch him. Don't you dare touch him." Floyd was advancing towards a man in a white lab coat. "What the hell are you doing to him you son of a whore dog?"

He had a hand under Spencer's chin and had tipped his head back. In his hand he held a small bottle with a dropper and as Floyd spoke he saw a droplet fall into Reid's open mouth.

"You don't want to be moving Flanders, or the rest goes in. Just stand back and watch." Another drop and now Reid was reacting to it and managed to turn his head to the side. "Dr Reid, is that your poorly ear my love?" But as Floyd stepped forwards again he pulled Reid's head around to look at him. "The eyes. That's where it really hurts." He let go of the dropper and just poured the contents of the bottle on Reid's face.

The man who Floyd recognised but didn't know his name didn't know he could fly. But Flanders grabbed him from an impossible distance away and dragged him over the bed in one horrendous fluid movement. He had been warned not to mess with Flanders and now he was seeing why. Hands around his throat, thumbs pressing – releasing – pressing – releasing.

"Who the hell are you!?" Walking away from the bed. The guy whose eyes had gone large and watery couldn't answer. "Why are you doing this? What did he do to you?" Floyd threw him against the window. "Tell me!" Advancing on him and pulling him up by the hair. "What could he have possibly done to you!? He can't even breathe on his own – What did he do?!"

Floyd could see Reid out of the corner of his eye his hands to his face his back arching from the bed and his legs pulled up tight to his body.

Hands back around his throat. "I am doing this for him. I am going to do this because you have hurt the only thing I have ever loved, but that's the point isn't it?"

Smack against the window.

Morgan's voice. "What the hell?"

"He's done something to Spencer. Help him."

Smack against the window.

"Put him down. Christ what did he do?"

"He poured something on his face."

Smack against the window.

The man was making funny gurgling sounds.

A final hard smack as the glass gave way and smashed out of the frame.

The momentum meant that even if he had wanted to he wouldn't have been able to stop the UnSub from going backwards out of the broken window.

What he hadn't counted on –which as it happened was pretty stupid – was that the bloke would grab hold of him as he went. He felt the hands wrap around his wrists and interestingly saw sky, then nothing and then sky and then wall and then sky and then nothing and then finally he saw car park.

…………………

* * *


	19. Chapter 19 The Mouse

The Mouse

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He lay there for a little while surrounded by what used to be the UnSub.

Blink.

"That hurt."

He could hear shouting and somewhere in the periphery of his vision he could see lights flashing and he could see feet.

"Crap."

He pushed himself up onto his hands. They slid under the mess he was laying in. Slowly he pulled his knees up so he was kneeling still resting on his hands blood and intestines dripping from his front. He looked down and wondered if it was him or the UnSub.

"Don't move." Someone was standing next to him. A shaky hand on his shoulder. "The medics are on their way."

Slowly he turned his head to look at who was talking. A mousey haired girl with a little pointy face. "I think it's too late for him my dear and me? and well I am just fine." And to prove it he stood. He swayed and he went back to his knees.

"Please sir, just wait for help." A small shaky voice from a small shaky person, but the only one with enough guts to stand in the guts. As it were.

He put his hands back down on the ground as his head span in a very unfashionable way and made him want to be sick. "I'll wait but I need to get back up there." A small gesture to the broken window he had been pulled from. "Do you have a phone? I need to make a call."

The mousey girl took a phone from her canvas bag she had over her shoulder. "Do you want me to make a call for you?"

"Just give me the phone girl." She took a step back.

Someone else was talking to him now. Confusing two voices too many voices.

"Can you tell me your name sir? What happened? Did you jump? Did someone push you? How did this happen?"

And in the background:

"_How is he still alive? Did you see that fall? How he is able to move? My god he is talking! Is he saying he needs to make a phone call?"_

……………………

Only one thing generally happens when you fall four stories out of a hospital window into the parking lot. You die. No question. Luckily for Reid he was in so much pain he didn't see it happen. Morgan didn't have to explain it to him. He held onto Reid's hands and wiped at his face with the wet cloth, but he had no idea what it was the UnSub had poured on his face.

He shouted for help as he watched the skin on Spencer's mouth and around his eyes swell and blister. He then tried to talk comforting words to someone he wasn't sure could understand.

"Reid it's ok. I know it hurts man, but calm down – they will give you something for it." He felt Reid's fingers tighten around his so he squeezed tighter back. "It's OK buddy the guy has gone. Floyd dealt with it. You're safe."

The doctors knew by know what the chemical was and so were able to act quickly this time. Though in Morgan's and possibly Reid's mind not quick enough. They gave him something to relax his muscles and stop him flailing and kicking.

"A muscle relaxant?" Morgan looked puzzled. "He's in pain! Give him something for the damned pain you son of a bitch!"

"It's very unlikely he is feeling pain Agent Morgan. His body is just reacting to the stimuli. We have explained this all to you."

"And I chose to ignore you. He knows I am here. He is awake and he can feel pain so give him a damned drug to get rid of the pain he is obviously in."

The doctor was looking cross. He wasn't used to a thing like Morgan telling him what to do. "It's not that simple Agent Morgan."

"It is that damned simple and while you are at it get that thing out of his neck and let him breathe on his own. If he is going to die doctor please let it be with some dignity and with no pain."

The doctor looked at Morgan like he was a bit of dirt on the bottom of his shoe. "If you insist."

The needles went in his hip, "He will feel very little now."

"The tube. Remove it."

"I don't think you are his next of kin."

"Remove the damned tube! Give him the chance to do this. What is your problem?"

"He needs to be aspirated first – nurse get over here will you and do your job."

Morgan took out a note book and pen and made a record of what the doctor was doing. He might need this later when he sues his sorry ass for incompetence.

…………………….

Upstairs there was quiet music playing and the atmosphere was relaxed.

Hotch lay on his back feeling pretty sick and in an amount of pain. He wondered where Morgan had got to and when he heard the whisperings. '_Two of them, they fell from a window on the fourth floor. Both very dead. Well I would think so! That is a long drop.'_

He called a nurse over.

"What's going on?"

"Oh it's nothing to worry about sir."

"Someone died on the forth floor? My friends are down there. I need to know that they are alright."

"Oh." He could almost hear her brain ticking. "There was a fight and they fell out of the window. One second I will see what I can find out."

Hotch lay in painful darkness waiting. His stomach and groin were in agony but the damage to his eyes was what was worrying him. No matter how many times his was told it was going to heal, he wouldn't be happy until he got the dressings off his face.

"Sir." The nurse again. "Neither men were Mr Morgan, he is still downstairs with Dr Reid."

"Thank you." Reid and Morgan were safe. He could relax again for a bit.

…………………..

Deep breath. (what the hell?) You can do this. It was a soft landing. Not as bad as it looks.

Again he got to his feet. "You girl. Care to show me where the main doors are? I feel a tad – how shall I put this – disorientated." He was looking at the mousey girl still holding the phone.

She moved towards him and put out her hand. "This way to A and E sir."

"I just need to get back up from where I fell from, so if you could just – erm – direct me?" He looked at her closely. A bit too close for comfort. "Did you tell me your name?"

"It's Lilly."

He tried to smile, but he had used his smile quota for the month and it just came out as a smirk. "That's a fine name. Fourth floor please Lilly."

She slipped the phone back into her bag and holding the blood splattered man's hand she took him around the side of the building. He knew it was wrong. This was completely the wrong direction. He really had hoped his instincts had been wrong, but this kind of thing was unmistakable.

As they rounded the corner he slowed down and pulled her close to him. A hand on each of he shoulders. "Wait Lilly. Where are you taking me?"

Her big eyes turned to calculating slits and she tried to pull away from his hands. He pulled her in close to him and put his nose to her neck. He breathed it in.

"I knew I was right."

Again she tried to pull back. Her hand now digging into her bag.

"I am sorry about your siblings Lilly, but they did keep trying to kill me." He moved a hand to the top of her head and with a quick twist she was dead and broken. "Bitch."

She ended her evening in a dumpster at the back of the hospital.

………………….

They were just about to remove the tube when the door flew open and a blood drenched very stressed looking Floyd burst in the room.

"What the hell! Floyd – how?" Morgan couldn't believe what he was seeing – and how much blood could this man get on his clothing in one day.

"Soft landing. What's he doing?" He walked in an almost straight line to Reid and took his hand. "It's me Babes. I had to pop out for a while, but I'm back now."

He felt the fingers tighten around his and the swollen eyes try to look at him. The tube was removed and the stoma capped. They put a thing around his face to give oxygen and they stood and waited.

"You need to take a breath Spence." Floyd ran fingers down his face.

"I told you it wouldn't work. He is too far gone."

A finger pointed by Floyd to the doctor. "I will talk to you later." Then back to Reid. "Come on Spence you can do this. Show the bastard he is wrong."

Still nothing.

Floyd bent over him and breathed gently into his mouth. He licked Spencer's lips and ran his tongue over his teeth. _'This could be so good.' _The inertness of Reid was exciting but it was for another time. "Excuse me Babes. You know I wouldn't hurt you – but…"

Flanders slapped him around the face. "breathe damn you Spencer!"

And suddenly a big gulping breath and a scream like the wail of a thousand trapped animals and a steady rise and fall of his chest.

…………………….

* * *


	20. Chapter 20 Hotch, Reid, and Flanders

Hotch, Reid, and Flanders.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

* * *

He wanted desperately to snuggle up on the bed with Spencer, but his clothes were somewhat sticky with UnSub goo. Morgan had grinned and said he would be back. He needed to go and tell Hotch what was going on. He was sure it would help his recovery knowing Spencer was off the ventilator.

"This means nothing." The doctor had insisted. "We still need to do test. I am of the firm opinion that this is not the good sign you are thinking it is." Morgan removed the doctor from the room before Floyd could send him out of the window.

Flanders sat next to the bed and rested his forehead next to Reid. He sighed happily when he felt the hand rest on his head and the fingers slowly move and his hair get curled around them gently. He moved his own hand and mirrored the action on Spencer's hair.

"Th th thank y you." A whisper.

"Anytime Babes."

"Wh wh what's in y y your hair?" Floyd felt Reid pull his hand away suddenly.

"My lunch. Don't worry about it." He looked up at Reid. "One sec."

Floyd stood up and took off the jacket he still had on and dropped it on the floor. He then removed the waistcoat and shirt. He kicked off his boots then slowly undid his belt buckle and unbuttoned his jeans.

"Move over babes."

He slipped his jeans past his boxers and then climbed up onto the bed.

"Face me. I need to see your face."

"I I it h hurts." A sigh. A lovely sound. One he was afraid he wouldn't hear again.

"I know."

"W w w waterf f fall?"

Floyd put a hand on the back of Reid's head and pulled him close. With his other hand he pulled the bedding up over them both and then moved his hand to Spencer's back.

"Mmmm a waterfall. Now just relax."

……………………..

Hotch was given the all clear and a bottle of eye drops. He had to keep dark glasses on for a while and he was advised to keep off spirits until his throat had healed, and to drink milk to calm it. Singing in the shower was also out for now.

Aaron and Derek went down to check up on Reid. He had been moved to a more comfortable room. Derek waited outside while Hotch went in.

"Hey." A quiet voice from Floyd.

"I didn't mean to disturb you. I needed to see Spencer." Hotch just stood in the door way.

"He's sleeping."

"I don't need to talk. I just need to see for myself that he is breathing." Still standing in the doorway.

"Of course. Don't just stand there. I won't bite."

"That's not even close to funny." Hotch moved closer while Floyd carefully unravelled him self from around Reid and slid back off the bed.

"All yours. Be gentle with him." Floyd started to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Aaron was talking to Floyd but looking at Spencer.

"For a coffee – a whiskey – a smoke – a snort. I don't know."

"At least put a robe on. You will have all the hospital porters chasing you if you go out there dressed like that."

Floyd pulled a robe off the back of the door and slipped his arms through the sleeves. He didn't bother doing the belt up. "Just be gentle Hotchner. You don't know how hard this is for me – to walk out of here leaving you with him."

"Yes I do – I know." He still just stood looking at the sleeping Spencer.

Hotch waited to hear the click of the door close before he looked back. Floyd had gone. A sigh. Yes he knew only too well how difficult that had been for Flanders to do.

Aaron moved around to the other side of Reid's bed and gently stroked the back of his head. "How many times do I have to think I have lost you?"

He slipped off his shoes and jacket, and then his tie dropping the lot to the floor. He slid on the bed behind Spencer and pulled the covers over them both. One hand he ran down Spencer's back the other he slipped around him and pulled him close. Aaron had missed this. Since Floyd started with his manipulations with Reid he had hardly been able to touch him. This would have been out of the question. He felt Reid push back against him and sigh as he continued to sleep.

…………………………

Floyd could see people looking at him when he walked into the refectory to get a coffee. He hated being stared at like that. It made his brain feel tight and uncomfortable. It was like they were peering into his soul and that was the very last place he wanted people to be looking right now.

"Coffee." He snapped at the woman behind the counter.

She made a black coffee in a polystyrene mug and slid it across the counter at him. Her other hand she held out.

"Thank you." She snapped back

"For what?" He picked up the coffee

"The money."

"What?"

"For the drink."

He blow across the drink and took a sip. He frowned at her from across the lip of the mug.

"Payment? For this?"

She nodded. Her hand still out.

He spat in her hand. "Payment of a mug of piss."

"You little…………" She started.

And Floyd was climbing over the counter, the drink somehow not getting spilt.

"Floyd stop." Morgan's voice. And a hand on the belt of his robe. "Leave the poor woman alone."

"Get your hand off me." A snarl.

"I am sure if she realised you had just fallen out of the window she would let you have the drink." Morgan dropped some money on the counter. "Sit with me for a while. What the hell is that you have in your hair?"

Floyd grinned at the woman. "It's your lucky day. I am sated. I just wanted a fucking drink." He slid back off the counter. "In my hair? Oh that will be UnSub brain."

Derek stood looking at Floyd for a minute not sure if it was what he said. He decided he would rather not know. "Sit with me. Chat."

"I don't do chat. Not with people like you. I want to get back to Spencer." Leaving the coffee behind and walking back out of the room.

"People like me? What the hell is that meant to mean you son of a bitch!" Following Flanders.

"You know what I mean. Don't play with me."

"No- no I don't. Tell me. What is it you find so offensive about me?"

Floyd turned. "You - your attitude, your – your tattoos – your accent – the way you torment Reid – your smell – you smell wrong – you don't make my mouth water Derek."

"What the hell?"

"Now piss off I don't want to be seen with you." Floyd walked back down towards the room Reid was in.

Floyd opened the door and looked in. "Agent Derek Morgan - don't let anyone in."

He closed the door with a soft click and slipped the privacy sign across – not a lock, but Morgan would keep people away.

…………………………

Reid could feel Hotch holding him. It had been a long time and he had missed this. He was never afraid when he was with Hotch. He didn't have to worry he said the wrong thing, or that Aaron would suddenly feel the need to hurt or be abusive. It was just pure comfort. He could feel hot breath on the back of his neck and safe hands touching his skin.

When then door opened and then closed again Spencer opened his still swollen eyes and looked at Floyd. His stomach clenched in a sudden jolt of fear as Floyd started to walk over towards them.

"Hey you." And he ran fingers through Reid's hair. "Room for one more?" Floyd climbed back onto the bed facing Reid pulling the covers up over them and put one hand tightly around Spence. The other he placed over the top of Reid's head and onto Aaron's head winding hair around his fingers and nuzzling his face into Spencer's hair.

…………………………

**END for now.**

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